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THE LIFE

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR;

NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM

lUcorttg antt ot^er Hutfyentk

BY

THOMAS ROSCOE, ESQ.

" Some Kings the name of Conquerors have assumed,

Some to be great, some to be gods presumed." — DUYDEN,

LONDON :
R. YORKE CLARKE & CO., PUBLISHERS,

M, GRACECHURCH STREET.

INTRODUCTION.

WHILE History is occupied with the public deeds of

the great and the mighty of the earth, and with the

consequences which result from them, it is the province

of Biography to penetrate into the inmost recesses of

heir souls; to explore the peculiarities of individual

isposition, character, and way of thinking; to study

he influence of external circumstances upon these ; to

search out the real motives of actions; to follow its

ubject into the privacy of domestic and social life ;

d to draw a faithful picture alike of his virtues and

vices, his excellences and his failings, his passions,

opensities, and eccentricities — in short, of every trait

y which he is distinguished from the rest of mankind.

The observant reader need scarcely be reminded how

rten trivial circumstances and expressions afford a

iearer insight into the real motives, views, characters,

jid dispositions of men than could ever be obtained

rom the mere consideration of their public conduct.

Hence the sagacious biographer, extending his re-

VI INTRODUCTION.

ssarches to minute details, may chance to discover
truths which elude the eye of the historian, content
with the great outlines of general facts.

The " Lives of the Kings of England/' written with
such impressions, will therefore, it is hoped, prove a valu-
able auxiliary to those readers who, fond of tracing effects
up to their true causes, are desirous of ascertaining the
real share contributed by each of the British Sove-
reigns to those results which have conferred on our
country and nation their present proud pre-eminence
in power, prosperity, freedom, and glory. To such as
seek amusement only, they may prove equally ac-
ceptable, as a connected record of the sayings and
doings of personages, many of them ranking foremost as
models of chivalry, and most of them enjoying the highest
renown among the politicians and the warriors of their
own times. The series commences with the Norman
Conquest, when History begins to shake off the legends
which cling to her when narrating the lives of even
the most eminent of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs, and
which are still strikingly exemplified in the sculptured
frieze in the chapel of Edward the Confessor, in West-
minster Abbey.

If the conquest of England by the Normans stamped
its characteristics with startling distinctness upon both
English and European history, the stern commanding
figure of the Conqueror towers in no less bold relief
above all his contemporaries, as well as all the royal

INTRODUCTION. VU

and most distinguished successors of whose dynasty he
became the founder. He fills the first and the most
important place on the grand historic canvas. Round
the central orb of his deeply politic system succeeding
generations of princes may be said to revolve, like the
inferior satellites, which have only a limited and pre-
scribed course to fulfil. He in truth created an era —
even in that mighty and stirring age of heroism and
adventure: he raised into gigantic proportions, and
arrayed with splendour the rude unfinished structure of
feudality; laid deep the groundwork of gorgeous en-
chanted palaces of chivalry and romance, which threw
such lustre over the middle ages; and, by the vigour of
his genius, established monarchic power in spite of the
nobles and the people, and the repeated efforts of both
to thwart his plans of royal government.

Previously to the revolutions, for such they really
were, which he effected, first in Normandy and then in
England, European monarchs were esteemed rather the
liege-lords, the mere feudal chiefs, the elected leaders of
the people, forming part of the aristocracy from which
they sprung — not the rulers of submissive subjects —
that beau ideal of sovereign rule, reserved for the policy
and daring of the great Norman to develop. He was
emphatically then the European and British prototype
of royalty, the great exemplar for the career of mo-
dern kings. Born with a regality of spirit that delighted
in daring and magnificent displays of every kind, and bred

Vlll INTRODUCTION.

in hardships and in trials, which endued him with states-
manlike wisdom, yet, ever " a daring pilot in extremity,"
he ably directed the vessel of his happy fortunes into
the new world of monarchy which his soaring ambition
so much coveted.

The patriarch of a long regal line, without him the
future monarchs of England, if not of Europe, would,
like the Anglo-Saxons, have reigned or ceased to reign
at the will of a powerful noble, or by the voice of a
venal crowd. All future questions indeed of royal pre-
rogative and policy appeared to emanate from the
reign and times of the Conqueror, as precedents of the
great legislator who raised his splendid structure of
Norman feudality and laws upon the shattered frag-
ments of popular government, upon the ruins of the
simpler and more beneficent system so grandly chalked
out by the great Alfred.

The framer of a new system of English laws and
government, William I. likewise presented the earliest
example to his successors in the career of foreign con-
quest and colonial possession ; and the most heroic and
distinguished among all may justly be thought to have
inherited, like a royal heir-loom, those prerogatives
which enabled them to raise the national character and
glory, to extend their dominion, to acquire the supre-
macy of the seas, and to become chief participators in
the colonies and commerce of the world.

To trace all the bearings and relations, with their

INTRODUCTION. IX

causes and consequences, of so eventful an epoch as the
Norman conquest, fraught with the destinies of vast
regions, of innumerable tribes and nations, yet to be
brought under the same Anglo-Norman sway, esta-
blished by the daring genius of a single man, the head
of a small province, is, however, a task which the
author frankly confesses to be far beyond his powers,
and one which, as a mere biographer, he never for a
moment contemplated.

At the same time, it was impossible to pass over
these points without comment, intimately blended as
they are with the life, character, and actions of the
monarch and the man ; but they have been kept in sub-
ordination to the chief subject — the exposition and
elucidation of the genius and qualities of a warrior and
a statesman, the daring and the grandeur of whose
achievement are almost unparalleled in the history of
the world ; for it dictated to a mighty nation the future
path which its successive governments were to pursue ;
from which its weal or woe has pre-eminently sprung :
and evidences of severe truths will thus appear in the
delineation of this monarch, in the historic groups by
which he was surrounded, in the depths of the lights
and shadows, and in all the adjuncts of the composition,
including the peculiar costume and manners of the
times.

Nor would the author have ventured even upon this
humbler task, had he not conceived that there were

X INTRODUCTION.

some novel features in the subject not hitherto fully
brought into public. view to recommend it, more espe-
cially connected with the earlier portions of the Con-
quer or^s life. It is on these that new light has recently
been thrown by the industry and research both of
foreign and native writers; and, with the advantage of
new materials, they have taken their views from the
best accredited sources.

It may be freely admitted indeed that, without such
publications as La Nouvelle Histoire de Normandie by
a society of learned persons, the elaborate work by M.
Lappenberg on the Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings,
the recently found Haddon Manuscript, a work of
immense research, not before consulted by any writer
on the subject, and other valuable documents in the
.British Museum, no complete or satisfactory biography
of the great Norman could be produced.

Yet these materials would not of themselves have
induced the author to engage in this work, had he not
enjoyed the equally inestimable advantage of consulting
many able and distinguished modern writers of his
own country upon almost every branch of its political,
civil, and constitutional history; a laborious analysis
and estimate of whose respective views may justly be
said to form the only merit to which he presumes to
lay any claim. To the admirable works of Hallam,
Turner, Palgrave, Lingard, Brodie, Kussel, Alison, and
Smythe, to the sources which they have pointed out,

INTRODUCTION. XI

to the luminous views and statements which they con-
tain, the author is proud to confess his large and pecu-
liar obligations., distinct from those due to the host of
earlier writers acknowledged as the received authori-
ties upon all subjects connected with Anglo-Saxon and
Norman periods of our history.

In addition to these ample authorities, mention
might here be made of the new Record and Charity
Commissions, the Lords' Committee Report on the
Dignity of a Peer — all which inquiries, as well as those
into the State Papers' Office, have served to throw light
upon many collateral points of early English history,
and upon the constitutional, civil, or political progress
of the estates of the kingdom.

Of such lights, as far as they served to illustrate the
Anglo-Norman dynasty or the character and actions
of its great founder, the author in his general views has
endeavoured to avail himself, aided by the valuable
researches of the most recent writers upon detached
portions of our history.

It has likewise been his especial endeavour to collect
more copious and accurate details than any writer has
yet given relative to the early life and actions of
the Conqueror, when he held sway over Normandy
only, that school in which the real strength and mag-
nanimity of his character shone conspicuous ; to trace
his motives, to record his sayings, his national policy,
his encouragement of the useful arts, his state coun-

Xll INTRODUCTION.

cils, the splendour of his court festivals and military
exhibitions, with all those politic arts by which he raised
Normandy to a power which proved adequate to over-
throw the firm-seated empire of the Anglo-Saxon, and
to hurl back the tide of Danish invasion, so long the
terror of the British shores.*

' * In support of the author's views regarding the wide-extended and
permanent influence of the Norman Conquest, and of the genius and
character of the Conqueror, upon our national institutions, privileges and
habits, several corroborating circumstances and singular coincidences
have arisen during the completion of his laborious task. One or two of
these he has already recorded in his notes, and at the moment of pre-
paring this Introduction, he obtained the following curious particulars
relating to Newport, South Wales, which are too interesting and too
applicable to his purpose to be omitted.

" On Friday last, about ten o'clock, Thomas Davies Lloyd, Esq., of
Bronwydd, Lord of Kernes, visited this borough, the ancient abode of
his noble ancestors. He was accompanied by his London solicitor, and
on his arrival was received by the Mayor, John Harries, Esq., and
Thomas George, Esq., solicitor, steward of Mr. Lloyd's various manorial
courts and lordships. The church bells rung merry peals "throughout
the day, in honour of their feudal lord's arrival, and, after inspecting
several interesting localities connected with the town, the party sat down
to an excellent dinner provided by the hostess of the Castle Inn ; Mr. L.
presiding, who did not before his departure for Haverfordwest, forget
to distribute, after the manner of his knightly ancestors, various bountiful
( largesses ' among the poor of the place.

" It may not perhaps be generally known that the barony of Kernes
is of a unique character, there being no parallel to it in Great Britain.
It was originally acquired by conquest in the time of William the
Conqueror by Martin of Tours, first Lord of Kemes, and was in a great
measure independent of the Crown of England. Its extent is great,
comprising as it does twenty-two parishes, and embracing a circuit of
upwards of fifty miles. The Lords of Kemes exercised many peculiar
and important privileges, and, though modern usage has abrogated some,
yet there are several valuable ones now exercised by their lineal
descendant and representative. The town of Newport is incorporated
by a charter granted by William Martin, Lord of Kemes, in the reign of

INTRODUCTION. Xlll

In finally giving the result of his labours to the
public, the author feels bound to return his warm ac-
knowledgments to the trustees and the official autho-
rities of the British Museum, for the readiness and
liberality with which they submitted both manuscripts
and printed works to his inspection : indeed it is im-
possible to appreciate their invariable courtesy and
attention too highly. To Sir F. Madden, the conserva-

King John, which charter still exists in the archives of the Bronwydd
family, and this is the only instance on record of the privileges of incor-
poration having been created by a subject. The mayor of Newport, an
ex-officio justice of the peace, is annually appointed by the Lord of Kernes,
and is assisted by a certain number of burgesses in the execution of his
duties. It is the opinion of the most eminent lawyers of the day, that
the Barony of Kernes is a virtual sovereignty." — (From an excellent
and public-spirited journal, published at Bristol, " The Great Western
Advertiser" of November 22nd, 1845.)

The author takes this opportunity of referring to another discovery
by Mr. Firth, the chief clerk of the archives at Guildhall ; namely,
of the two original charters granted by William I. to the City of Lon-
don, supposed to have been lost, and already alluded to in the author's
work. They are very brief, not more than six or eight lines, as nearly
all the Conqueror's conveyances of rights or manors, whether to cities
or to huntsmen, are found to be, and fac-similes of these, with a parti-
cular description, are to be seen in " Grain ger's History of London,"
— a splendid copy of which is in the hands of Mr. Henry Bohn, of York-
street, Covent Garden.

Nor ought the author to dismiss this interesting subject without refer-
ring the reader to the curious antiquarian discoveries lately made among
the ruins of the ancient Priory of Lewes. These are the remains of
Gundreda, fifth daughter of William I., and of William de Warren, who
are known to have been buried in the Chapter House of that religious
establishment. A particular account of this occurrence may be found in
the Brighton and Lewes journals (November 1st and 8th, 1845), and
also a still more full one in the " Illustrated London News," with the
exact representation of the cists, engraved on wood, with the remains
as they appeared on the discovery and exhibition of them.

XIV INTRODUCTION.

tor of the manuscripts, to Mr. Panizzi, the chief Libra-
rian, to Mr. Gates and to Mr. Marshall, he considers
himself especially indebted for the success with which
he has been enabled to prosecute his repeated and
multifarious inquiries.

It may not be improper to add that the work will
form a companion and complement to that in which the
" Lives of the Queens of England " are related by the
felicitous pen of Miss Agnes Strickland, with the pecu-
liar grace of her own sex and with the research and
strength of the other.

T. R.

March, 1846.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. WILLIAM OF NORMANDY, HIS EDUCATION AND

EARLY EXPLOITS ..... 1

II. GOVERNMENT op HIS DUKEDOM . . . 44

III. VISIT TO ENGLAND, MARRIAGE, WARS, AND

ALLIANCES 70

— IV. WILLIAM AND HAROLD — THE INVASION OF ENG-

LAND— BATTLE OF HASTINGS . . .125

V. WILLIAM CROWNED KING OF ENGLAND — PERSE-
CUTION OF THE ENGLISH .... 196

— VI. NORMAN LAWS IN ENGLAND — REBELLION IN NOR-

MANDY 247

— VII. WILLIAM I., HIS COURT AND FAMILY — HOSTILITY

OF HIS SON, ROBERT 303

— VIII. FATAL ILLNESS OF QUEEN MATILDA — INVASION OF

FRANCE — DEATH OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR 366

ILLUSTRATIONS.
(DRAWN BY G. p. HARDING, ESQ., F.S.A.)

ORIGINAL PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. (FROM

THE COINS OF HIS REIGN.) . . . . . Frontispiece.

LANDING OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR AT PEVENSEY. (FROM

AN ANCIENT DRAWING IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.) . Vignette Title.

THE

LIFE OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

CHAPTER I.

Birth and parentage of the Conqueror — Loves of Robert and Arlette
— New memorials relating to them — Arlette's character and conduct
— English prejudices — Chronological dates — Robert's devoted attach-
ment to, Arlette, and to their son — Anecdotes of his family — His-
torical poem of Benois de St. More — Reputed marriage of Arlette —
William's birth-place— Castle of Falaise— Description of it — Early life

" and education — Anecdotes and characteristics — Military exercises —
Liberal education — Legitimate aspirants to the dukedom — Duke Ro-
bert's policy — Presents William to the States — Acknowledged as his
heir — Henry King of France appointed guardian — William is pre-
sented at the French court — Duke Robert's departure for the Holy
Land — Anecdotes — Education at the French court — Studies — Military
occupations — Field sports — Troubles in Normandy — Duke Robert's
death — Return of the pilgrim knights — Feudal system in Normandy —
Insurrections and violence of the barons — William invited to assume
the ducal crown — King Henry's opposition — His intrigues — Joins Wil-
liam's enemies — Singular scene — The rebel barons defeated — William
takes the field — His talent in war — His docility, prudence, and good
fortune — Moderation and clemency — Continued successes — War with
France — King Henry retreats — Offers to negotiate — William's policy
and magnanimity — Generous conduct — Conciliates the barons — Sub--
dues and pardons his uncle — Treachery of King Henry defeated by
the young duke — Ignominious flight and humiliation — Exploits of the

' Conqueror — His popularity with the Normans — Enters into a truce
with King Henry— Returns in triumph to Falaise — Celebration of his
victories.

WILLIAM I., surnamed the Conqueror, King of Eng-
land, and Duke of Normandy, was born on the 14th of

VOL. I. B

2 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

October, in the year 1024. He was the illegitimate son
of Robert/ sixth Duke of Normandy, and of Arlette,2
the daughter of a tanner at Falaise.

It is not a little amusing to trace the ingenuity of
the doughty vouchers of historic fiction, whenever
they have a"favourite point to carry; and in all that
related to the adventure of Arlette, and the manner in
which she attracted the eye of her princely lover, they
found a rich field in which to expatiate.3

According to one of these amusing versions, Lord
Robert, for he was then, as appears from various dates,
neither a duke nor an earl, but a simple baron, while
engaged in levying the ducal income-tax upon the
refractory tanners, met with the tanner's daughter,
and at once became a suitor to her beauty.4 A second
describes him as riding leisurely by the way-side,5 when
he observed a party of young maidens dancing, and was
suddenly smitten with the surpassing grace and loveli-

1 Several Norman chroniclers and most English historians, state that
Robert was the eighth duke — evidently an error, if we may rely upon
dates. He could not be the eighth Norman duke, as, previously to the
invasion of France by Hollo, Normandy was known by the name of
Neustria, and, commencing with that Danish founder of a dynasty, of
which the present queen of Great Britain is a descendant, William the
Conqueror ranks as the seventh duke.

2 Arlette is her proper and general designation by the early Norman
historians.

3 Benois de St. More, in his curious and amusing heroic poem, written
at the request of King Henry II., in which he celebrates the exploits of
the Norman dukes and kings, gives us many naive specimens, in a eulo-
gistic strain, which partakes not a little of the marvellous. At the same
time a few historic truths may be gleaned from it. He is surpassed,
however, in his efforts to please the reigning family by one of the Saxon
genealogists, who tells a very plausible tale of the royal parentage and
descent of the Conqueror's mother, Arlette ; and who shall venture to
disprove his story of the royal maid of Falaise ? — See Lives of the English
Queens, by Agnes Strickland. 4 Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist.

5 Henderson, Life of the Conqueror.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 3

ness of Arlette. By a third it is asserted that he met
the lady — for she herself declares she was of gentle birth
— in passing through his native town of Falaise ; 6 and
that he invited her attendance the same evening at his
lodgings. A more agreeable supposition,, but perhaps
almost as apocryphal, is that of the lovers having first
met at a dance during some public festival given by the
' ' notables " or leading men of the ancient city of Falaise,
among whom the sire of Arlette assuredly held a respect-
able rank.7

It is strange that we should not earlier have turned
our attention to the version of the story, as given in the
poem of St. More/ not the least probable, and certainly
the most romantic 9 among them all. Here, returning
from the sports of the field, Robert surprises her with
some of her young companions bathing her feet in the
limpid waters of a stream that ran at the foot of the
castle. The description left us of the personal charms
of the fair " Arlette" by her poetic chronicler is very
flattering to her.

6 Hayward.

7 Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Poesies de St. More, &c.

8 L'Estoire et la G&iealogie des dues qui unt ete en Normandie ; which
is described in the catalogue of the Harleian Library as consisting of
" A Chronicle of the dukes of Normandy," from the beginning to the
death of Henry I., king of England, written in very old French verses, by
Benois de Sainte More." — Bibl. Harl. B. M. Manuscripts, 1717. It was
written by the desire of Henry II.

9 Robert was never married to any other lady, and St. More repre-
sents her less in the light of a mistress than of a bride, as she is made to
speak of herself. Contemporary authorities are agreed that she was
uniformly treated with consideration and respect by Robert and by his
son. The ample dower subsequently settled upon her, on her marriage
with the Lord of Canterville, and the rapid promotion of her sons, who
rose to high rank under the government of the Conqueror, all tend to
show that her equivocal position was attended with many advantages.

4 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Our poetic celebrator of the memorable adventure of
Arlette, first describes the residence of the " good lord
Robert" at the castle of Falaise, "a spot extremely
salubrious and agreeable." Introducing the subject
with a flourish of trumpets, he very properly, as if pre-
paring his readers for the denouement, takes care to
inform them that one of the greatest pleasures he had
in life was " chatting with the ladies." One day, having
just returned from the chase in his usual gay mood, for
he was merry it seems, as well as liberal and magnifi-
cent, he chanced to cast his eye upon a fair creature,
with her young companions, bathing her feet, and
whitening linen in the stream —

" With other daughters of the < Borgeis,'
Right fair and more than two or three."

Not being over-anxious about their work, they were
" aye gaily gibing and jesting with each other to
while away the hour, ' being all peers together/ in the
manner that young maidens are wont." The day was
beautiful ; the lovely spring-tide genial and warm. Her
light dress concealed neither the symmetry of her shape,
nor the exquisite whiteness and delicacy of her hands
and feet — " fair token of the most exquisite form and
beauty." No wonder, we are quaintly told, that a young
prince should have preferred them even to the fleur de Us
which they so much exceeded in his eyes ;' or that, struck
with admiration, he should be suddenly " smitten where
he stood." " She is the daughter," we are next told, " of
a citizen of good degree ; she is of rare prudence, affable,
and as high-spirited as beautiful; she is a blonde with

1 " Que ce fu bien au due avis
Q.ue neifs est pale e fiors de lis
Avers la soc grant blanchor."

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 5

open brow and beaming eyes, which never shone with
pride or scorn ; but whose sweet benignity and alluring
frankness gave a fresh charm to the soft, mellow tones
that breathed in her voice. Her complexion is exqui-
sitely fair ; she has a finely chiselled mouth, nose and
chin j a grace that defied rivalry, with a neck and arms
surpassing all the prince had before seen." Her attrac-
tions, in short, are made to excel those of any other
maiden throughout the whole dukedom. The poet, then,
very elaborately assures us that Robert wished to obtain
her for his own above all other things.2 So he forthwith
despatches a chevalier, his chamberlain, " a man of
sense," who proceeds with the affair in a most business-
like manner. He says, in a wise soliloquy, that he will
" speak with the father, the good citizen, so that there
shall be no misunderstanding 011 the subject."

After a long exordium, the charge d'affaires comes to
the point, and offers so round a sum, with an establish-
ment and provision so magnificent, as might appear to
leave little room for hesitation, and none for a final
refusal. He bids still higher — to endow her with a rich
seignory, and love her "with a great love." But he
still fails to shake the tanner's honour, who flies into a
great passion, and retorts upon the chamberlain with
proper spirit,3 for he was one of the principal citizens of
Falaise, and it annoyed him to think that he could not
give his own daughter in marriage with the consent of
her relatives and friends. He prides himself upon his
honourable resistance to the tempting offers of the
chamberlain, till the fair Arlette herself appears on
the scene, as the person most interested in the dispute.
She points out to the tanner the future aggrandisement

2 " Li dux la valt ser tote ricu." 3 " Qui mult se tuit a Esgarez."

6 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

of his family, and finally succeeds in smoothing all dif-
ficulties.

The poet on this takes occasion to extol the skill and
prudence of the lady, who contrives to give to the whole
affair the sanction of a public engagement. She declares
that she will go to the castle, not like a poor chamber-
maid at command,4 but as the free maiden daughter of
a gallant man,5 to add to the honour of her family, and
for her own advantage, so that she need not to be
ashamed. Neither levity, she declares, nor folly of any
kind, shall influence her in so serious a proceeding, nor
will she deign to accept lord Robert's invitation, "if she
is to go on foot." She requires that an escort of palfreys
and due attendance shall be sent to her, " that she may
go more pleasantly." Her princely lover, of course,
complies, and the poet seems quite to exult in her con-
quest over the father of the Conqueror, congratulating
her on her fortune, and describing with minute care her
beautiful apparel, especially her pretty pelisse.6 Then
her " courte mantle," so easy and flowing ; her bridal
head-tire, so brilliant and gay, with all the paraphernalia
of a duchess, which extort the admiration of the parents,
whom she is described as tenderly consoling while mourn-
fully taking her leave. This assuredly looks very like a
bridal array, so open and so public as to defy the censo-
rious, and to imply the existence, not merely of previous
courtship, but of some marriage pledge, sufficient to
countenance the supposition of several contemporaries
that her lover had privately espoused her.7

4 " Ne come povre chambriere."

5 « Prodoruc," a gentleman. 6 " Blanche, fresche e lee sans luz."
7 The open and lady-like manner in which she was subsequently

treated, and; the handsome dowries she received, tend to prove, as she
asserted, that she had kept her eye upon her future establishment.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 7

The poet then, bursts into a prophetic strain, on the
birth of an heroic prince, who shall rival Hector, and
surpass all that had been achieved by King Arthur or
Charlemagne. He boldly asserts that she was her
lover's lawful bride ; 8 and that it was for this reason,
Fortune with the permission of Providence would not
fail to promote their noble heir.

We are indeed not aware of any poem of the kind in
which the lovers appear to greater advantage, from the
naive and graceful manner in which the description of
the love scenes is given. If we can only excuse the strain
of eulogy which runs through some of its brightest pas-
sages in consideration of its being written at the request
of a potent monarch, we shall have no reason, as readers
of genuine rhyming histories of those eventful times, to
be discontented with the amusing traits and incidents
interspersed throughout this poem. We may form some
idea, then, how the gay Saint M ore's chivalrous de-
scription of the loves of Robert and Arlette must have
been appreciated by their royal descendants seated
upon a British throne, and how interesting it was
esteemed at the court of the second Henry, not then as
now seen dimly through the guise of its quaint old French,
but fresh from the mint of the favourite court style of
Normandy. We must, however, admit that the historic
romance of Saint More has been long divested of its
original attractions, and that, with all its sources of in-
terest and entertainment, it must fail to give the tanner's
daughter, though said to have been descended from
Anglo- Saxon kings,9 an uncontested title to the consort-
ship of Duke Robert of Normandy.

By the subsequent marriage of Arlette with the Lord

8 " Ne la mie deshonoree." 9 Saxon Genealogy.

8 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

of Canterville, her relations with the ducal family seem
by no means to have been disturbed. By this marriage
she had two sons/ both of whom rose to distinction in
the reign of the Conqueror, and a daughter named
Muriel, who afterwards became Countess of Albe-
marie.2

Having now broken a lance in honour of the fair
Arlette, and with the aid of St. More endeavoured to
rescue her name from some of the obloquy attached to
it, from the Anglo-Saxon aversion to her descendants,*
it is time to recur to our more immediate subject.

Few details of a character to be relied upon respecting
the early life and education of William, have survived
That good fortune which never deserted him in after
life, shone with equal benignity upon his infancy. He
appears to have soon become a favourite with his father,
and he was carefully nurtured and brought up in the

1 Robert" and Odo. Robert appears to have been a favourite Christian
name among the Normans. It is remarked that there were no fewer than
four Roberts of illustrious ' birth, all contemporaries, namely, Robert,
Duke of Normandy ; Robert, the archbishop, uncle to Robert and brother
of Richard II. ; Robert, King of France ; and Robert, afterwards Earl
of Cornwall, the Conqueror's half-brother. — Nouvelle Hist, de Normandie.

2 This lady had two daughters, nieces of the Conqueror, one of whom,
named Judith, was afterwards given by him in marriage to an influential
Saxon noble, named Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland ; and we shall
again have occasion to allude to her when she appears upon the stage in
no very enviable character.— Orderic Vital. Nouv. Hist, de Normandie.

3 So great was this aversion of the English, that it extended even to
her name, and to all kind of mean calumnies, such as were propagated by
the enemies of her illustrious son. They did not scruple to apply to any
woman of light character the name borne by the fair maid of Falaise ; and
as it came uptime to be pronounced Arlotte, Arlotta, and Charlotte, they
retained the Hy and dropping the French termination, abbreviated the
word ; and it was thus the English language was proverbially enriched
with that unpleasing epithet Harlot. — Vestigia Anglicana. Ang. Sax.
Dictionary. Home Tooke.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 9

ducal palace or castle at Falaise.4 He must have been
about four years old when the ducal sceptre was assumed

4 It is averred, from an ancient manuscript discovered at Falaise, that
its famous castle was founded by Julius Csesar, quasi Domus Julii, or the
Julian towers. William, surnamed Armoricus, in his poem on the siege
of Falaise, in 1203, declares that its name was derived from the rocks on
which it was built and by which it is surrounded. It is situated at the
extremity of the town, but separated from it by a broad ditch. It" had
huge walls flanked with towers, and to it was attached a small chapel
dedicated to St. Prix. The tower or donjon was a vast square edifice, and
near to it was a smaller, the usual residence of the dukes ; and one tradi-
tion states that from its windows Robert first beheld the lovely Arleitte
de Verprez, asserted by some to have been the daughter of Fouques de
Verprez, attached to that prince's service, and a gentleman by birth.
Another portion is called (( la tour de la Reine," near which is seen the
breach made by Henry IV., when he took it by assault in the year 1590.
M. 1'Abbe de Longuerue is of opinion that neither castle nor town trace
their origin farther back than the dukes of Normandy. The adjoining
town was exempted by William from all duties and other imposts, upon
account of his having there first seen the light. — Nouvelle Hist, de Nor-
mandie ; Chron. de Nor.

In a recent description of a visit to this castle — " The Cradle of the
Conqueror" — by a more modern and charming writer, Louisa Stuart
Costello, we seem to enter the region of historic fancy, where scenes long
past appear once more before our eyes. " Rising suddenly from the banks
of a brawling crystal stream, a huge mass of grey rocks, thrown in wild
confusion one on the other, sustains on its summit the imposing remains
of a feudal castle, whose high white tower, alone and in perfect preserva-
tion, looks round over an immense tract of smiling country, and tells a
tale of by-gone power and grandeur. Adjoining this mighty donjon are
walls of enormous thickness, adorned with a range of beautiful windows,
with circular arches of early Norman style. Close to the last of these,
whose pillars with wreathed capitals are as sharp as in the first year of
their construction, is a low door leading to a small chamber in the thick-
ness of the wall ; there is a little recess in one corner, and a small win-
dow, through whose minute opening glimpses of a fine prospect can be
caught. It was in this narrow room, once said to have been adorned with
gold and vermilion, and other gay hues, that a child was born in secrecy
and mystery, and that by the imperfect light his beautiful mother looked
upon the features of the future hero of Normandy. ' A few antique houses
still exist, but they have no elegance of carving, as at Angers and Bourges,

10 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Dy his father, who perceiving " what a fair and goodly
child he was/' bearing a close resemblance to his Nor-
man line, embraced and acknowledged him as his son.
He ordered princely attendance to be paid him in his own
palace, and up to his ninth year it is stated that duke
Robert bestowed the utmost care upon his education.5
William appears to have been early inured to those
military exercises in which he so conspicuously excelled.
At the age of five he is said to have engaged in the
mimic game of war, commanding a battalion of little
urchins, at the head of whom he went through the
evolutions customary at that time. The germs of the
feudal chief and the sovereign were first unfolded in
his boyish rule over these miniature soldiers, as well as
that extreme love of discipline which he afterwards so
rigidly enforced. He was at once arbitrator and dic-
tator in all their disputes, and his decisions, it is added,
were remarkable for their acuteness and equity.6 One
or two curious traits of his boyish spirit have also been
preserved. He displayed the combative not less than

to atone for their extremely slovenly and ruinous aspect. One is called
the house of William the Conqueror, and a rudely sculptured bust is ex-
hibited there which is dignified by his name.

" There is a good public library, that great resource of all French towns,
and several fine buildings dedicated to public utility ; but the boys of the
College excite the envy of the stranger, for their abode is on the broad
ramparts of the fine old chateau of William the Conqueror." — The Cradle
of the Conqueror. (See Dublin University Mag.)

The unfortunate Prince Arthur was for some time a prisoner in the
castle ; but was subsequently removed to Cherbourg, where he was assas-
sinated by the hand of his uncle, and his body thrown into the sea. — Nouv.
Hist, de Nor.

5 Nouv. Hist, de Normandie ; Chron. de Nor. ; W. of Malms. ; Du-
chesne ; Henderson.

6 Chron. de Nor. ; Hist, de Normandie ; W. Pictaviensis ; W.
Malms.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 11

the acquisitive propensity among his infant subjects,
not unfrequently challenging them, as he did Harold, to
a single encounter.

It was upon occasion of duke Robert's departure for
the Holy Land, on a pilgrimage, that his son's residence
was transferred from Falaise to Paris. An amusing scene
is recorded to have taken place between Duke Robert
and his lords in a general assembly of the deputies of the
States. Aware that William had no legitimate title to
the succession, he determined to adopt him as his heir,
to the exclusion of his own brothers, of Alan duke of
Brittany, and of his cousin the count of Burgundy.7
This was a bold project in the face of so many legitimate
claimants, and one which Robert would hardly have
attempted without great confidence in the promising
talents and high courage of his son. Though yet so
young, having been educated under his father's own
eye, surrounded by his soldiers and by his people, he
must have given some proofs of the firmness and supe-
riority of his character. His noble features, and eager,
fiery spirit, had rendered him a general favourite with
the Normans, and Robert knew how far he might trust
them, when he summoned his proud relatives and his
barons to attend him at the Hotel de Ville.

Already were there both secret and open aspirants to
the ducal succession. Nor was the duke, it appears,
ignorant of their views ; for, under pretence of dissuad-
ing him from his journey, they had severally tried to
sound his intentions, and now they obeyed the summons
with alacrity. The youth of William, independently of
his illegitimacy, would, they expected, as in many simi-

7 Duchesne ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; W. Malms. ;
W. Geniet.

12 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

lar cases, afford ample reason for passing him over in
their favour.

The surprise and disappointment, therefore, of Ro-
bert's legitimate relatives must have been extreme ; and
it was only perhaps to the strong competition of con-
flicting interests that he owed their submission to his
will, and the reluctant acknowledgment of William as
his heir.

Guy, count of Burgundy, first opened the discussion
by expressing his fear that, during his good cousin's
pilgrimage, the estates, consisting of barons, knights,
soldiers, and notables, would alike be left without a head.
" Not so, by my faith \" was the duke's quick rejoinder,
eager to arrest a strong debate in the outset, and to
extinguish each rival's hopes in favour of one beloved
successor — " Not so ! I will leave you a master in my
place. I have a little bastard here j8 he is little, indeed,
but he will grow with God's grace ; nay, I have great
hopes that he will prove a gallant man ; therefore I do
pray you all to receive him from my hands, for from this
time forth I give him seizin of the duchy of Normandy
as my known and acknowledged heir ; and I constitute
Alan, duke of Brittany, governor and seneschal of Nor-

8 It was not unusual in France for natural sons to succeed to their
father's dignities, even to the very highest. Thierry, son of Clovis —
Sigisbert, of Dagobert — are instances of it. In England, Athelstan,
Edward the Martyr, and Harold Harefoot ; and it was the same in Por-
tugal and other countries. It had certainly the authority of antiquity in
its favour ; for we trace it back to those great worthies, the knight
adventurers of their times, Hercules, Alexander, and Romulus, to say
nothing of Timotheus, Brutus, Themistocles ; and the chronicler adds to
them the renowned king Arthur. Again, we have Homer, Demosthenes,
Bion, Bartolus, Gratian, Peter Lombard, Andreas, and divers of most
flourishing name ; among whom our Conqueror may worthily be ranged.
— Haywarcl, Lives, &c. ; Chron. de Nor. j Hist, de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 13

mandy, until I shall return, or tliat William, my son,
shall become of manly age. Nevertheless, my lord,
Henry king of France, shall have the charge and guar-
dianship of the child." 9

Duke Robert, then taking the future Conqueror in
his arms, tenderly embraced and kissed him, after which
he presented him to the assembled peers and notables
to receive their due homage according to the Norman
rules, with the oaths of fealty to his state and person.1

This prompt and decided conduct had the desired
effect. Taken by surprise, with no point of union
round which to rally, the factious aspirants were silenced,
and compelled to unite with the peers and state depu-
ties in the recognition of William's claims. But the
seeds of future discontent and sedition were not the less
active in their breasts.

This important object being gained, Robert's next
step was to remove his young heir, with the consent of
his chief barons and prelates, to the French court.2 It
was a wise measure to withdraw him from the dangerous
influence of faction, and, by placing him under the pro-
tection of his sovereign lord, to enable him to hold his

9 Vie du Due Guillaume, &c. ; W. Malms. ; Cliron. de Nor. ; W
Geniet ; Hayward's Lives, &c. l Nouvelle Hist, de Nor.

2 It is stated by some historians that William's two uncles were asso-
ciated as joint guardians with the French king. But to this duke Robert
makes no allusion in his address on presenting his heir to the assembly of
the States. It was to guard against their intrigues that he selected king
Henry, and* made Alan, duke of Brittany, his grand seneschal. " So
William," says a quaint old writer, " at that age succeeded his father,
having very generous and aspiring spirits, both to resist abroad and to
rule at home. He was committed to the government of two of his uncles,
so as it may seem he was committed to these tutors as a lamb should be
committed to the tutelage of wolves." — Chron. de Nor. ; Hayward, Lives,
&c. ; W. of Malms.

14 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

more legitimate rivals and his unruly barons in some
degree of awe.

"William was in h^s ninth year3 when his father,
taking a final leave of Normandy, proceeded to Paris
to present him to his guardian. It must have been to
both an interesting and affecting scene. Duke Robert
was about to take his last farewell of the beloved object
of all his oares, for whom his present act proved the
extent of his affection, and how tenderly he regarded
his interests, in thus soliciting in person the counte-
nance of his sovereign. Henry at the same time was
under the deepest obligations to his kinsman, who had
not only vanquished that king's enemies, but replaced
the crown he had lost upon his brows.4 Attended by
his pilgrim knights, duke Robert was introduced hold-
ing his young son by the hand. He was received by
the French monarch seated upon his throne, and sur-
rounded by a splendid court. As if to render the
solemn appeal to the royal guardianship more impres-
sive, Robert led him to his sovereign's feet, and after
embracing him with tears, he bade him kneel and do
obeisance to his sovereign lord. Henry also embraced
him, and as graciously accepted the proffered trust.
The handsome features, serious expression, and noble
bearing of the boy, seem even then to have impressed
the beholders with a favourable opinion of his future
fortunes, in accordance with that already expressed

3 This is calculating his nativity from 1024 ; but, if we take 1026, as
most Norman writers assert, he was only in his seventh year. The for-
mer date would leave an interval of two years between Robert's departure
and his death, when William was eleven, but he did not formally suc-
ceed to the dukedom till he had reached his sixteenth year. — Nouv. Hist.

4 Chron. de Nor. j Hist, de Nor. ; Duchesne ; W, Pict. ; W. of
Malms.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 15

by his father before the peers and prelates of the

Upon his route through France, duke Kobert met
with a singular incident which served to prove his
exemplary humility and forbearance in the character of
a knight-pilgrim. It was customary to wear ' ' the lowly
weeds" of Christian penitence over the armour; and
one of the wardens of a religious establishment, at
which the noble pilgrims halted to repose, seeing
Robert walk humbly behind his companions, struck
him a sharp blow with his staff, crying, " Hasten, thou
loiterer, to wait upon thy Lord ! " The duke's attend-
ants, indignant at such an insult, drew their swords,
and would have killed the man on the spot ; but Robert,
as if mindful of his sacred mission, interfered, observing,
" it was the duty of pilgrims to suffer, and, thinking of
their Saviour, to receive blows without returning them."

Robert in the first place repaired to Rome, where he
was invested by Benedict IX. with the order of the
cross. Thence he proceeded to Constantinople, where,
doffing for a season his pilgrim habit, he is said to have
appeared with a splendour which gained him the title of
the " Magnificent," at the imperial court. Even the
shoes of the mule upon which he rode were of gold, so
fixed as to drop off, that they might be picked up by
the people, and thus convey an imposing idea of the
Norman wealth and power. The emperor on his side
insisted upon defraying Robert's expenses while he con-
tinued to sojourn in the capital of the East. Pro-
secuting his route, he was taken ill of a fever, and,
being unable either to mount on horseback or to go on
foot, he was placed in a litter borne by sixteen Moorish

5 Thierry, Anglo Normans ; M. Sismondi ; W. Pict.

16 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

slaves. While thus travelling, we are told, he met a
pilgrim,6 named Piron, returning into Normandy, who,
having saluted the party, inquired if they had any
message to send to their friends at home ? " You may
inform my people," was the duke's reply, "that you
met me at this spot, carried by a legion of demons upon
my way to Paradise/'' Then bidding farewell to the
pilgrim, who laughed heartily at this compliment to
the Moors, he bade his almoner give him a piece of
silver to refresh him on the road.

Other characteristic traits, not less honourable, have
been recorded of this prince. At a certain festival,
during a collection for the poor, Robert observed an
indigent knight deploring that he had nothing left to
give. The prince privately handed to him a sum of
money, which he instantly deposited in the plate. The
monk soon after inquired if he had not made a mistake?
" By no means," replied the knight, " I gave the exact
sum." The duke, admiring the honest spirit of the
poor knight, presented him with a sum equal to that
which he had before given.7

Eobert was not less distinguished for his affability and
wit than for his magnificence. While at Constantinople,

6 Generous to a fault, Robert assisted numbers of the poorer pilgrims,
gave them escort, and paid their entrance into Jerusalem, placing them at
the head of his train. His magnificence, with his offerings at the holy
sepulchre, surpassed all that had been before witnessed. The governor
is recorded to have held his character in such veneration that he ordered
every facility to be afforded to his followers, and to the Christian pilgrims
of all ranks. The example he held up was perhaps useful to generations
of the poorer class of religious visitors at the holy shrine. It is also
stated that he forwarded to the noble abbey of Cerizy, in Normandy,
founded by himself, many highly prized reliques, purchased from the
Patriarch. — Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Normandie.

7 Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 17

upon one occasion the emperor is said to have put these
qualities to the test. He invited the duke to feast with
him in his palace ; but, when the hour arrived, took
care to have all the tables and seats filled with, guests,
being curious to know how a prince, so distinguished
for his courtesy, would act. When the duke and his
companions entered, not one of the guests offered them
the least accommodation, and they walked to an empty
space at one end of the room. There the duke took off
his splendid mantle, folded it with care, laid it upon the
floor, and sat down ; his example was imitated by his
followers. In this position they dined ; and the feast
being ended, the duke and his knights rose, took leave
of the company in the most graceful manner, and
walked out of the hall in their doublets, leaving their
rich cloaks behind them. The emperor, who had ob-
served their whole behaviour, expressed his extreme sur-
prise, and sent one of his courtiers to entreat that the
duke would put on his cloak. " Return," said the Duke,
" and tell your master that it is not the custom of the
Normans to carry about with them the seats which
they use at an entertainment."8 "Could anything,"
adds the historian, " be more delicate than this rebuke,
or more noble, polite, and manly, than such a deport-
ment ?" It was such also as became a knight-pilgrim,
as well as a prince.

Few details of much interest have been preserved
respecting William's residence at the court of his
guardian and lord paramount, Henry I. That his educa-
tion, however, was carefully completed with the aid of the
first masters, there is sufficient contemporary evidence

8 J. Brompton ; Chron. de Nor. ; Henry Hist, of Britain.
VOL. I. C

LS WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

to conclude.9 If, at the early age of eight, he could
read and explain Csesar's Commentaries/ we may be
assured that his future hours of study were not lost.
During the two years' interval between his father's
departure for the Holy Land and his death, William
appears to have been brought up with the young
French princes, and to have received instruction in the
military schools, such as they then were, at Paris. He was
surpassed by none of his youthful comrades, either in
the varied accomplishments of feudal nobility, then
wearing their newest gloss, or in extensive reading and
sound study of the military art.

The intervals between his more serious pursuits were
spent either in field sports, especially hawking and
hunting, or in going through evolutions with the troops,
of which he was remarkably fond. Sometimes also he
would attend Henry's envoys in their missions to sur-
rounding courts and states, andbecanie instructed in that
indispensable science for a statesman ruler, diplomacy.

The court of France was in the eleventh century the
best academy, perhaps, in which a prince, born to rule,
could obtain an extensive knowledge of mankind. It
was the centre then, as now, of political intrigue ; the
European camp of feudal heroism ; and the adventurous
spirit of the sons of its nobles was scarcely exceeded by
that of the Normans themselves, who were then ambi-
tious of being considered " Frenchmen," and were so
designated even subsequently to the Conquest. In Paris,
therefore, William breathed the very atmosphere of
knightly enterprise, while he stood aloof from the
meaner intrigues and factions that might have perilled

9 W. Pictaviensis ; Chron. de Nor. ; W. of Malms. ; Henderson j
Hayward. 1 Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 19

both life and honour in his own states.2 A warm friend
and as bitter an enemy, the young prince early displayed
a keen sense of honour, soaring emulation, and a fiery
energy, yet finely tempered by the dictates of a sound,
unerring judgment. Nor was his physical temperament
less favourable to the culture and development of his
mental powers. He was temperate, active, assiduously
eager in his inquiries and in the acquisition of fresh
knowledge.

That his general conduct and deportment, combined
with noble and affable manners, won the regard of the
French monarch and the esteem of his barons, we have
reason to infer from circumstances that subsequently
occurred in his campaigns with Henry. How unwil-
lingly the French engaged in a contest with him
appeared from the emphatic reproach they addressed to
their royal master after his defeat. That they equally
rejoiced at becoming his allies, and conquering by his
side, was evident upon many other occasions; and,
though residing in a foreign court, he was still more
popular in Normandy — a proof that he must have pos-
sessed something extraordinary in his character to
impress the recollection of him so early upon all with
whom he had come in contact.

The States preserved the fealty they had sworn to
him, and the council of Regency, composed of Alan,
duke of Brittany, Raoul de Grace or de Vassy, the con-
stable, the noble chiefs of the Montgomeries and De
Beaumonts, were strenuous in resisting the torrent of
violence and insubordination which threatened to sub-
vert the government.3

2 \V. of Malms. ; Nouv. Hist, de Normandie ; Chron. de Nor. ; Meze-
rai ; Wace ; Robert of Gloucester ; Benois de St. More.

3 Wace ; St. More ; W. Gemit. ; Chron. de Nor.

c 2

20 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

But already were heard the murmurs of the storm,
directed by the aspiring genius and secret intrigues of
his uncles and other relatives, which was destined soon
to burst upon William's head. It was only the recol-
lection of the signal services of duke Robert, and of the
prudence and valour of his ancestors, the beneficent
reign of Richard the Good, and the exploits of their
founder, Rollo,4 which still drew the affections of the
Normans round the son of the princely pilgrim with the
bonds both of a religious and heroic superstition,
strengthened, perhaps, by the absence of the object of
their regard.

Nor could the reputation of his ancestors fail to
exercise a powerful influence over William's own mind.
The fame of Rollo, the father of the Norman line,
" familiar as household words " in the mouths of men,
must have aroused aspiring hopes and wishes, when he
heard how he had vanquished the armies of Charles 5 of

4 These exploits were serious enough for all neighbouring nations ; so
much so that it was a petition inserted in the Litanies of different people
who dreaded the depredations of these northern freebooters — " From the
fury of the Normans, Good Lord deliver us !" — J. Brompt.; Nouv. Hist.

5 The sole condition required by Charles the Simple from the Danish
hero was that he should embrace the Christian faith ; a condition as
happy for himself as for his subjects. When invited to do homage to the
King, as his lord paramount, by the usual mode of kissing the royal toe,
Rollo repudiated the idea with infinite scorn. Upon its being insisted on,
he turned to one of his officers and deputed him to perform the office ;
and so great was the rage even of the officer, at being driven to so humili-
ating an act, that he seized the royal leg, and, lifting it up to avoid stoop-
ing, threw Charles completely off his balance, amidst the loud laughter of
the Danes. Rollo was contemporary with our great Alfred ; made a
descent upon England, and after ravaging the coasts was compelled to
retire. He closed his adventures by making himself master of Brittany
and Normandy, where he founded his dukedom. There he laid a firm

foundation for his new dynasty and the succession of his posterity ; of

that future empire which now extends its sway over every quarter of the

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

France,, besieged him in his capital, and compelled him
to cede part of his dominions, with the hand of a prin-
cess for his bride.

In the year 1035, while William was still pursuing
his studies at the French court, came tidings of the
death of duke Robert. This bereavement William must
have felt both as a son and as a prince, in both relations
being under the deepest obligations to the object of his
regrets. There can be no question that this event had
as marked an influence upon his conduct as upon his
position and future fortunes. It was the signal for
fresh outbreaks in Normandy, fomented by the late
duke's relatives and legitimate aspirants to the ducal
crown.6

Little amenable to authority of any kind, the turbu-
lent barons began to arm their vassals. As jealous of
each other as of William's delegated power, they fortified
their castles, or joined the prevailing factions opposed
to his government. A number of competitors soon
appeared in the field, among whom William, earl of
Arques,7 the young duke's uncle, was one of the most

globe. From this, fortunate chieftain — the sire of many a royal stem, as
well as of that of England — there descended six dukes of Normandy, in
a direct line, who bore sway during 1 20 years previously to the conquest
of England. These were all distinguished in their day. Their names
were William I. ; Richard I. ; Richard II. ; Richard III ; Robert I.,
father of the Conqueror. — Nouv. Hist, de Normandie ; Duchesne.

6 It is the general opinion, founded upon contemporary authorities,
that Robert died upon his way from the Holy Land ; most probably when
he had reached Nicea, in Bithynia, worn out less by age than previous
anxiety and his early wars. A story was propagated that he had been
poisoned, and, still more absurdly, that his pilgrimage had been under-
taken to appease his remorse for having been instrumental in causing the
death of his brother, duke Richard III. — Chron. de Normandie ; Nou-
velle Hist. ; W. Gemit.

7 This powerful aspirant to the dukedom was brother to Mauger the

22 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

formidable. There were also Guy of Burgundy, the
counts of Mortaine and Eu, and,, the most distinguished
of all allied to the ducal house — Roger de Toni, renowned
for his campaigns in Italy and Spain,, who was the first
to raise the banner against the Regency. In this exi-
gency, Alan of Brittany, the grand seneschal, hastened
to the scene of action, with the hope of preserving order
and establishing William in the ducal seat. Unfor-
tunately, a fatal accident at Vimoutiers terminated at
once his expedition and his life ; an event which enabled
earl Roger to mature his plans and induced him to
make an immediate and rapid advance upon the capital.
It was at this juncture that the pilgrim knights of
the cross, having performed the last offices to their
princely leader, arrived from the Holy Land. They
found their country a prey to violence and faction, and
their master's beloved heir still absent at a foreign
court, 8 in the power as well as under the tutelage of a
jealous and wily relative. It was only the dread he
entertained of the Norman power which prevented his
perpetrating the tragedy afterwards enacted by King
John, and in nothing does the fortune of William
appear more conspicuous, as compared with the ill-fated
Arthur, than that, in circumstances of even greater
peril, he should have escaped free and scathless from
the hands of his ambitious guardians.

prelate, by whom he was supported. Guy of Burgundy, and Robert's
other relatives, including King Henry of France, were soon emboldened
to advance their pretensions, on the ground of inheriting from the sisters
or aunts of the deceased duke. The future Conqueror's own claim to the
English crown was founded upon a similar kind of relationship. — Ord.
Vital. ; W. of Malms. ; Chron. de Nor. ; St. More.

8 Duchesne ; Chron. de Normandie ; W. of Malms. ; W. Pict. ; Nou-
velle Hist, de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 23

The faithful companions and counsellors of Robert
lost no time in joining the council of regency, and
representing the necessity that existed for the instant
presence of the young duke. Proposals to this effect
were consequently made to Henry as his lord, para-
mount, to which we shall again have occasion to allude.
The mutual aggressions of the barons continued to
aggravate the evils of a disputed succession, while the
absent heir was too young to dictate terms to his aspir-
ing enemies.

Meanwhile, the council of regency had difficulty in
warding off the danger of foreign invasion, in addition
to the calamities of civil strife and dissension. The laws
of duke Robert were no longer respected ; the voice of
justice and reason was no more heard ; and fears were
entertained, from the delays thrown in the way of Wil-
liam's return, of the trustworthiness of the French
king. Secret projects were already concerting with his
enemies, and the council, to avert the approaching
storm, called an assembly of the prelates and barons in
the young duke's name. The attendance was only par-
tial, and the number of powerful leaders who kept aloof
proved the extent of the danger which was hourly
increasing.

At this " great council," however, the first held in
William's reign, it was resolved to insist more peremp-
torily upon the restoration of the royal ward to his
people and his capital, in order to give authority to
the edicts of his government. Another embassy was
despatched, with conditions to which Henry considered
it most politic to accede. This bold and judicious mea-
sure was especially well-timed ; for, in a very brief

24 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

period, there would have been little chance of the
young heir obtaining his personal liberty, as events
soon made it appear.

Forgetting all obligations to his relative, the late
duke, Henry's ambition betrayed itself in a more open
manner, when William was removed from under his
eye, and he blamed himself for having too easily com-
plied with the demands of the council. But Henry,
with all his love of intrigue and his ambition, was of a
weak and vacillating character, while his ward, endowed
with qualities, if not directly the reverse, yet of a loftier
order, soon availed himself of his knowledge of the
king's weakness, as a stepping-stone to his own aggran-
disement. Henry, on his part, sought to retrieve his
error by delaying the recognition of the young duke's
title, and renewed his intrigues with his adversaries.
A crisis was near at hand.

The germs of the feudal system had already spread
widely throughout France and Normandy. A gra-
duated scale of military vassalage, by tenure of service,
was tending to produce a sort of grand national police
of the most formidable kind; a power afterwards so
well understood by William, and fostered to its utmost
perfection. At that time, however, its rising energies,
both in France and in Normandy, were all directed
against him ; and, wielded by a stronger will and
greater talents than Henry possessed, must have
effected the speedy re-conquest of Normandy at a
juncture so favourable for such an attempt. But
William's star was in the ascendant ; and early expe-
rience and perils taught the heir of duke Robert how
to turn their most formidable weapons against the

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 25

breasts of his assailants.9 His skill and daring supplied
the want of means to curb those fiery and unruly
barons, who defied his power, and whose conflicts
exhausted the strength of his dominions.1

Among the most turbulent of these petty despots
ranked Vauquelin lord of Terriers, and Huet de Mont-
ford. Their reply to William's summons in council
was highly characteristic of the state of his government,
and of the times in which these " lords of misrule"
flourished. " They declined," they observed with the
most insulting coolness, "to take part in any other
person's quarrels till they had settled their own." This
declaration of independence must have convinced Wil-
liam that he had many a sharp conflict to encounter
before he could dictate terms to spirits so turbulent.
It was equally clear that his aspiring relatives had
taught their vassals and retainers to regard his title to
the ducal crown with indifference or contempt.

Nor were these baronial wars only a conflict of open
force ; recourse was had to fraud and even assassi-
nation, and more than one of William's faithful adherents
paid the penalty of his fidelity with his blood. His own
friend and preceptor, who had accompanied him on his
return into Normandy, was almost the first of these
victims.2 To such an extreme was the violence of
faction carried, when fomented by foreign intrigues and
rival claims, that Gilbert de Crespin, his father's friend
and counsellor, did not escape ; and Osberne de Cres-

9 Mezerai ; Waco ; Thierry ; Sismondi, Lyttleton ; Sir W. Temple ;
Hallam ; Palgrave, Rise and Progress, &c. l Ibid.

2 He was named Theroulde from the place of his birth. He had been
long in the service of king Henry, was intrusted with the military educa-
tion of his ward, and, unfortunately for himself, appointed to escort him
back into Normandy. — Nouvelle Hist, de Nor.

26 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

pin, once the seneschal, and governor of the town of
Theroulde, was unable to protect his own life. He was
despatched in his bed by a brother of the celebrated
Roger de Montgomery, while in retaliation his provost,*
burning to avenge his lord, gained access to Mont-
gomery's apartment at the head of his retainers, and
put both the assassin and his accomplices to death.
The powerful houses of Bellesme and Alen9on pushed
their enmity to the most revolting lengths, while their
knights and vassals, as if privileged by military tenure,
vied with the feudal atrocities of their lieges upon a
minor scale.4 Rising towns became the prey of the
castles; and the burghers tax-paying serfs to every
feudal lord of the hour.

In vain William's council attempted to put a stop to
this insolent defiance of the ducal government ; nor
was it till the hero himself was enabled to take the
field that outrage, rapine, and sedition were put down
by a stronger arm. He was yet scarcely in his fifteenth
year ; and many of the more moderate and best dis-
posed among the barons had left their castles in disgust,
and joined the Norman campaigners in Italy or against
the Saracens in Spain.5 In this service the young nobility
of Normandy were accustomed to flesh their maiden
swords, before the banners of the cross had yet waved
over the plains of Palestine, and popes and hermits had
preached the holiness of religious wars.

About this period the death of Alan III., duke of
Brittany,6 left vacant the office of constable of Nor-

3 Named Barnan de Glos.

4 W. Pict ; Orderic Vit. ; Wace ; St. More.

5 Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist.; Vie de Guiscard ; Ord. Vital.; P.
Pictaviensis.

6 Brittany, it should be remembered, was a sort of ducal fief, held of

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 27

inanely, which, with that of regent in the minority of
Conan II., was intrusted to the able and faithful De
Gace. This distinguished warrior as well as states-
man had been appointed guardian to several young
princes, and acquitted himself with equal judgment and
fidelity of his onerous and delicate charge. He was son
of the celebrated archbishop Robert, who rose to high
distinction in the reign of William's father, and, as
count d'Evreux, espoused the rich heiress Heloine, by
whom he had several sons, who displayed all the fiery
courage of their prelatical sire.7 Subsequently to the de-
cease of Theroulde he had been appointed military tutor
of the young duke, and was assiduous in promoting his
studies, and showing him by example the application of
those rules of conduct of which he had heard and read.
On the sudden death of his friend and fellow-soldier,
the duke of Brittany, while leading an army to William/ s
succour, he hurried in person to oppose Earl Roger, but
found his faction too deeply rooted to yield to his most
strenuous efforts . He was compelled to act on the
defensive, and garrison the few strong places which
continued faithful. His haughty enemy affected to
regard the illegitimate scion of Hollo's stem with ex-
treme disdain, priding himself at the same time upon
his own honourable descent from that great founder of
the ducal race. Stung to the quick to perceive that his
claims were passed over by the " grand council" and

the Norman dukes, and was bound to afford military aid, as well as to
do homage by its feudal tenure. It was different with regard to France
and Normandy ; the suzerainship in the crown of the former did not
extend to the Norman dukes as to the other feudal princes, who held of
the crown ; nor were they compelled to attend the king of France in his
wars with a body of troops whenever he should require them. — Dudon
de St. Quentin ; Hist. Ang. Gest. Gul. Norniannorum, p. 872. 1 Ibid,

28 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

barons of tlie realm, after his signal exploits, he was
also surprised on his return to find himself deprived of
the authority which he had formerly exercised in the
councils of the deceased duke. Being possessed of
immense wealth, he soon collected an army of free-
booters, with which he levied contributions upon his
neighbours, laid waste the surrounding territories, and,
following up his successes, he now aimed at nothing less
than the ducal crown.8

Fortunately for William, his enemy's great rival,
Dupray des Vieux of Beaumont, declared in his favour,
and deputed his son Roger, already famed in arms, to
oppose his namesake at the head of his troops and
vassals. Arriving suddenly at the seat of danger, young
Beaumont attacked the proud pretender, routed his
mercenary army, and slew him with his own hand.9
It is, however, reported that the constable De Gace
arrived most opportunely during the battle, and thus
contributed to give the death-blow at once to the pre-
tender and to the conspiracy which he had organised.

The name of De Beaumont becomes conspicuous from
this period in the Norman and English annals. In
conjunction with De Gace, Eitzosberne, and the Mont-
gomeries, the only remaining props of William's state,
Roger pursued his success ; and their services were
afterwards rewarded with many a broad English manor.
It is stated that, in commemoration of his signal good
fortune, the victor founded the abbey of Priaux in 1038 ;
and he was subsequently chosen president of William's
council, and regent during his absence in Brittany,
England, and France. Other abbeys may have been

8 Duchesne ; Chron.de Nor. ; Wace ; Thierry ; Sismondi ; W. Pict.;
Mezerai ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. 9 Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 29

erected in honour of other victories, and it is probable
that to this commemorative spirit we may owe some of
those many splendid monuments, the ruins of which
are yet to be seen in Normandy.1

No sooner was one [of the duke's enemies disposed
of than another appeared in the field. The French
monarch secretly intriguing with the malcontents, next
resolved to take advantage of William's troubles, and
prevent the consolidation of his power in the outset.
With this view he summoned the duke to attend him,
and do homage at Evreux; a requisition which his
council, perceiving that he was in no position to declare
his independence, advised him to obey. He was then
not more than fifteen, but he went attended by a splen-
did retinue, to impose the respect which his youthful
age might fail to exact, and it had the desired result.
Henry, whatever were his real views, had not the
temerity to violate the feudal laws existing between the
lord suzerain and head vassal, strengthened by the
obligations of feudal usages, then in force, and of a
royal guardian's hospitality. But he assumed the tone
of a dictator rather than of a protector, and received
his ward with marked displeasure.2 " I am little pleased,
young sir," began the king, " with your new fortress at
Tellieres ; its garrison is continually making incursions
into my territories." William expressed his regret,
"if it were so." " If so or not, you must give it up,"
was the haughty sovereign's reply, " that I may level it
with the ground. It is you who must give the order,
and follow me instantly ! "

1 Nouvelle Hist, de Normandic ; Duchesue ; Chron. de Nor. ; Ducariel.

2 Mezerai ; Wace ; W. of Malms. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron.
de Nor. ; W. Pict.

30 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

We may imagine the feelings of the boy-duke at this
command. Accustomed to comply with the injunc-
tions of his guardian, and taken by surprise, we can
hardly wonder that, so circumstanced, he complied with
the royal mandate. However reluctantly, he gave the
required orders ; but its governor, the valiant De Cres-
pin, refused to surrender the place. It had been con-
fided to him, a sacred trust, by the late duke Robert,
who little anticipated that the royal guardian into
whose hands he had committed his only son, and who
was indebted to him for his throne, would be the first
to summon and raze it with the ground.

In this dilemma, William appealed to his council,
and, to assuage the anger of the incensed monarch, the
orders were reiterated, and the fortress was destroyed.
The young prince, happy to regain his liberty, even at
such a price, took a formal leave of his lord suzerain,
and returned to his castle at Falaise.3

William did not soon forget a scene so characteristic
of Henry's duplicity, and events soon afforded him an
opportunity of taking ample revenge, and in the man-
ner most humiliating to the pride of Henry, by mag-
nanimously sparing the wreck of his beaten armies.
This interview, which took place in 1039, evinced the
jealousy with which the king viewed the progress of his
ward, his high promise, and his love of military distinction.
Add to all this the recent successes of William's com-
manders, which threatened more important conse-

3 Though present in Normandy from the year 1037, William had not
yet assumed the reins of government, or appeared in the field. He did
not formally assume the ducal crown till about 1040, when he also first
encountered the overwhelming numbers of the French, headed, too, by a
French monarch in person. — Chron. de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 31

quences. The council of regency., indignant at so
wanton a display of the sovereign power — at variance
alike with feudal law and usage — remonstrated, but in
vain. Henry replied by marching a powerful army
into the county of Hyemes, devastating the country,
and giving up the city of Argentau to the flames.
"William's council began too late to repent the conces-
sion they had made to him, by delivering up the fron-
tier fortresses; while his barons, irritated at these
sacrifices, derided his youthful inexperience, and repu-
diated the idea of submission to a sovereign basely
born, and not yet out of his minority.

Some extraordinary event alone could retrieve Wil-
liam's fortunes at this trying juncture, and, as if to give
an earnest of the brilliant destiny that awaited him, it
now came to his aid. Toustain de Gois, Count of
Hyemes threw himself at this crisis into Falaise 4 at
the head of a strong force, while his native district lay
ravaged by fire and sword. Foiled in his grand object,
Henry had recourse to stratagem, and attempted to
corrupt the fidelity of its governor by promises so
liberal that the count could no longer resist, and fell
into the snare. Before he could deliver up the castle,
however, the brave De Gace, by his promptness, once

4 This ancient capital of the dukes of Normandy, already described,
was situated in the most central part of the duchy ; and its magnificent
fortress, in its then state, was considered almost impregnable. It pre-
sented a point of union in every dangerous emergency, and it was there that
William concentrated his forces for his most distant and perilous expedi-
tions. Its capture at such a moment must have decided the fate of the
campaign, and perhaps of Normandy itself. For, in the face of so many
competitors, Henry would doubtless have annexed it to the French
monarchy, and obtained that glory which was reserved for his more for-
tunate successor, Philip Augustus.

32 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

more, even at the eleventh, hour, turned the scale of
fortune in William's favour.

These singular examples of a sudden revolution in
William's affairs, when upon the very brink of destruc-
tion, may be remarked throughout the whole of his
subsequent career. He now accompanied the veteran
De Gace for the first time at the head of a select body
of his Normans, and arrived just in time to prevent
the consummation of the count's treachery. The siege
was raised, and no sooner was William recognised, clad
in complete armour, by the side of his faithful seneschal
and tutor in war, before the castle which had given him
birth, than he was hailed with shouts of acclamation
both from the garrison and the town. They beheld
the son of duke Robert, to whom they had sworn alle-
giance before his departure for the Holy Land ; and they
now saw him betrayed by a corrupt guardian and by
faithless vassals. The governor, in alarm for his own
safety, could with difficulty prevent the inhabitants
from throwing open the gates; and the moment a
breach was made, they rose and compelled the garrison
to surrender. The unhappy count, aware that his guilt
was known, threw' himself at the feet of the young
duke, whose first exploit was not tarnished by a want
of magnanimity. He spared the count's life, but justly
banished him, and confiscated his property.

From this epoch,5 soon after he had been knighted
by the French king, with all those feudal ceremonies
peculiar to the time, the military reputation of William
takes its rise. He now felt more confidence in the

5 Namely, 1039 or 1040, about the period when William first assumed,
the reins of government, and commenced his campaigns.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 33

position which he occupied, and in the influence which
had arrested the haughty French monarch in his
treacherous career. His noble deportment and affable
manners completed the prestige of his easy and blood-
less victory. His calm and serious aspect, his self-pos-
session, his eager inquiries and just remarks, gave high
promise of those statesmanlike qualities and rare
talents which he soon displayed. The inhabitants vied
with each other in celebrating his return ; and contem-
porary chroniclers dwell upon this period of his career
as forming the groundwork of his distinction, and
bringing his more brilliant qualities into fuller view.
" From the manner," says one of them,6 " in which the
young duke William did comport himself in this virtuous
trial, he was ever afterwards held in good esteem and
well reputed of."

Attended by his faithful seneschal, William lost no
time in prosecuting his first success. The king lay
encamped between the towns of Argentau and Hyemes ;
but on the young duke's approach he had recourse to
his usual arts, and offered to negotiate. By the advice
of his council, approved by De Gace, the duke consented,
and again reaped the fruits of battle without its risks.
And it is worth noticing that, throughout all his future
campaigns, he never engaged an enemy when he could
possibly avoid it, or attain his object by other means.

Henry consented to evacuate the towns he had taken,
with the exception of the fortress of Tellieres, and it was
during the retreat of the French monarch that William
celebrated his peaceful triumph by formally assuming
the ducal crown. The ceremony took place in his
recovered capital, surrounded by the prelates and barons

6 Duchesne ; Chron. de Nor., in Mazeres ; Hearne ; W. Pict.
VOL. T. D

34 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

still faithful to Ms cause. Nor, young as lie was, did the
heir of duke Robert appear unequal to a dignity, the
lofty duties of which it was his ambition to discharge.
Some of his first acts showed that he was disposed to rule
with justice and even clemency. He recalled from
banishment the repentant lord of Hyemes, in consider-
ation of the noble conduct of his son/ to whom the duke
was ever afterwards strongly attached.

The same conciliatory policy led him to confer the
archiepiscopal see of Rouen upon one of his uncles/ by
the advice of his great council in 1041. But this high
dignitary soon showed himself more turbulent and over-
bearing than even his predecessor, the celebrated Robert.
He had the presumption to employ his powerful influ-
ence in promoting the disloyal views of his own brother,
the Earl of Arques. This noble, the brother of the late
duke, spurned the honours conferred upon him by Wil-
liam, and, breaking out into open rebellion, declared that
he would support his title to the succession, though it
were to the death.9 He advanced it as the legitimate
heir of his father, Richard the Good, next in succession
to duke Robert, while that of his nephew, though derived

7 Richard, son of Toustain Count d'Hyemes, was rewarded for his
signal services with the confidence of his prince. William, as a mark of
his esteem, restored the father to his family honours, with an exception of
some portion of the county, which he settled upon his mother, Arlette,
after her marriage with Herlain of Canterville.

8 This was the notorious prelate Mauger, whose ingratitude to William,
and whose flagitious conduct, combined with an eccentricity bordering
upon madness, sullied the lustre of his uncommon talent. So wild did he
at length become, that the people thought him possessed with a demon,
and the duke was compelled finally to strip him of his ill-worn honours,
in favour of Lanfranc.

9 Nouvelle Hist, de Normandie ; Duchesne ; Chron. de Nor. ; Orderie
Vitalis.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 35

from the elder branch,, could not be placed in competi-
tion, as he was only the spurious offspring of Robert's
mistress Arlette.

The juncture seemed not unfavourable to the bold
earl's enterprise. The strange disappearance of Wil-
liam's tutor and companion in arms, De Gace,1 was a
circumstance to be deplored. He is no more seen or
heard of in the busy drama of William's life; but,
though deprived of his right arm in war, the youthful
hero was not the less true to himself. With admirable
promptitude and vigour he advanced to the seat of
danger, where a single error in judgment, or the least
false step, must have thrown victory into the scale of his
adversary, and consigned the future " Conquerer " to
irretrievable ignominy and neglect. The French king,
also, was preparing to join the haughty earl; yet Wil-
liam's courage and determination rose with the urgency
of the occasion. Fortune refuses few favours to the wise
and the brave. By a bold movement he struck at the
heart of his enemy's power ; and appeared before his
strongest fortress before he was supposed to have taken
the field.

The earl had constructed a formidable tower, well
garrisoned, upon the rocky pinnacle of the castle, so as
to render the place almost impregnable. Thence he

1 The absence of the seneschal De Gace* at this eventful crisis gave rise
to suspicions that he had come unfairly by his end. It is asserted by
several of the old chroniclers that he was secretly taken off by William's
enemies, but his death was never satisfactorily accounted for. If he did
not fall a victim to assassination, or in battle — an event which would
surely have been noticed in some of the Norman chronicles — it is very
possible that he may have followed in the steps of his former master,
duke Robert, and gone on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, then a favourite
mode of retiring from the bustle of an active professional career.

D 2

36 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

sounded the tocsin of war in the ears of his warlike
vassals ; the surrounding district, difficult of access, and
guarded at every step, rose in his cause, while the French
king was hastening to support him.

Nothing daunted, William sent an order to his rebel
uncle summoning him to appear at Rouen and do
homage for his county; and then, leaving a force
under earl Guiffard to continue the siege, he marched
with a select body of his Normans to effect a diversion
against the French in the vicinity of Valognes. The
duke and his gallant followers are described as setting
out on this expedition to encounter the veteran chivalry
of France, led by the monarch and his great barons,
with all the eagerness of boon companions proceeding
to some joyous festival. Having first cut off the king's
communication with the castle, he had recourse to one
of those stratagems for which he became so celebrated,
and laid a strong ambuscade in the depths of the adja-
cent valley, along which Henry was pursuing his route
to relieve his ally. Upon either side were lofty acclivities
thickly covered with woods; and into this vast defile
the van of the French army advanced. This consisted
chiefly of battle-axes and pikes. In the right wing,
bodies of Germans were intermixed with the French.
In the left, fought the men of Anjou and of Poitou;
and then followed a large escort with the baggage, and
"an innumerable train/' we are told, "of scullions,
cooks, carters, and other base drudges," the royal com-
missariat of that day. Next to this convoy, which he
was anxious to protect, marched the monarch himself,
with his main battle, consisting of the most valiant
knights and worthy gentlemen bravely mounted, while
the lancers and men-at-arms closed the rear.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 37

The young duke, more effectually to draw Henry
into his toils, deployed a small detachment to face the
enemy, which, after making a feigned attack, had orders
to turn and fly ; a feint nearly resembling that after-
wards practised with such signal success at Hastings.
Thus decoyed, the French fell completely into the
snare. When they were well advanced into the valley,
the Norman bowmen discharged their feathered lances
from the hills on both sides. This attack William fol-
lowed up with his men-at-arms, supported by a small
body of horse, and the carnage was great. The French
van being well commanded, drew up in the form of a
wedge, and a portion of it, preserving compact order,
succeeded in cutting its way till it reached the summit
of a hill where it encamped.

But the main body was not so fortunate ; the right
wing was almost wholly destroyed; the left was driven
back upon the rear ; and the destruction caused in its
flight spared the young victor half the work of slaughter.
Next rushed on the knights and nobles of France to
restore the battle, but they were met with the same
storm of arrows from the hill sides. Their horses, galled
with the barbed points, were thrown into confusion;
and the dust and light sand which they raised, blown
full in the faces of the French, involved them all in one
dark cloud, which deprived them of the power of action.
While they were in this wretched plight, the Normans
descended from the hills, and, "coming to close en-
counter with battle-axe and sword, made great havoc
among their enemies."

Had William possessed numbers at all proportioned
to those of the French, he might have surrounded
and taken them prisoners; for he compared them

38 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

to deer in a toil; and it was indeed a true hunter's
stratagem which he had employed. But, aware that
with his small force he could not utterly vanquish and
destroy them, William, with a policy rare at his age,
when his Normans were weary of slaughter, assumed
the merit of forbearance as a ground of reconciliation
when he should find it expedient to propose it.2

The French king retreated by the way he came ; and,
when he encamped for the night, surrounded by his
broken masses, not only did his nobles reproach him,
" but the rudest of his soldiers did boldly upbraid the
king with this misfortune." One asked him where his
vanguard was — where his wings — where were the residue
of his battle and rereward ? Others demanded if he
had any more mousetraps to lead them into, and when ?
Others called for the carriages to preserve those in life
who had not been slain. But most sat heavy and pen-
sive, scarce accounting themselves among the living.3

2 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Hay ward, Lives; Chron. de Nor. ; W.

3 " While the French expected every moment to be again assailed, and
no man saw anything but death and despair, behold a messenger came
from the duke, not to offer but to desire peace, and to crave protection
of the French king according to the trust which Robert, the duke's father,
reposed in him. Peace was signed, and protection assured in a more
ample manner than it was required. Then the messenger with many
good words appeased the king's heaviness, telling him that his vanguard
was safe, his carriages not touched, and that he should be furnished with
horses, both for burden and draught, instead of those that had been slam.

" These words, as a sweet enchantment, ravished the French king with
sudden joy. But when they came to gather up their baggage, a spec-
tacle both lamentable and loathsome was presented unto them. The
valley covered with dead bodies ; many of them not touched with any
weapon, lay trod to death, or stifled with dust and sand ; the wounded
overlaid with the slain that they were unable to free themselves ; towards
whom it is memorable what manly both pity and help the Normans did
afford. And so the French king, more by courtesy of his enemies than

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 39

" The King submitted to all these reproaches with a
sad silence; sometimes he dissembled as though he
had not heard, and at others he would faintly answer,
* Good words, good soldiers ; have patience awhile and
all will be well'."4 He was indebted upon this occasion
to the ostensible magnanimity and moderation, but in
truth to the real policy, of his conqueror for the escape
of his army, a policy which, it will be seen, soon resulted
in William's own advantage. In this spirited action
many prisoners of rank fell into his hands ; these he set
free without ransom. Enguerraud, Count of Abbeville,
was slain, and another malcontent, Hugh Beaudoin,
remained a captive.5

The siege of Arques was continued with the utmost
vigour; but during the temporary absence of William, who
was compelled to repair to Rouen, a party of merce-
naries, at the instigation of the French King, at length
succeeded in throwing succours into the place. This
inveterate hostility upon the part of his lord paramount
and former guardian would have led to the submission
of a less determined character. Learning that the
King was again advancing with reinforcements, after
rejecting the honourable conditions proposed to him, he
appeared for some moments lost in thought,6 then in
the emphatic words of his historian,7 " he first began to
know himself, and to devote his mind to war in earnest
as one covetous only of honour." He forthwith called
for his fleetest steed, for he was far distant from his

-either by courage or discretion of his own, returned in reasonable state
to Paris." — Hayward, Lives, &c. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Walsingham.

4 Hayward, Lives ; Abbe Prevost ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor.

3 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor.

6 Abbe Prevost ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; W. Malms. ; W. Pict.

7 Ibid.

40 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

camp. " Let those who love me/' was his brief charge,
" now follow me ! " and, putting spurs to his horser
attended by a few of his bravest knights, he scarcely
drew bit till he had reached the barriers of Port An-
demer. There he mounted another charger, and pro-
ceeded to rejoin his army before Arques, after traversing
the districts of Le Veez, Bayeux, and Caen, a distance
of more than eighteen leagues, and having outridden,
we are assured, the most eager of his gallant ad-
herents.

William's sudden appearance and address had a
magical effect upon the bold besiegers. There was
nothing too daring for them to attempt; for like all
great leaders he possessed the art of transfusing his
own spirit into the breasts of his least intrepid fol-
lowers.

The air rang with acclamations as he first uttered
that memorable oath so often repeated amidst the
perils of his eventful career, while he stood uncovered,
surrounded by his knights and vassals : " By the splen-
dour of God, I swear never to depart from this spot
until the strong place of Arques shall be in my power ! "
— a terrific oath, responded to by all, and which quickly
decided the fate of his powerful rival.8

From the summit of his castle-tower, till this time
deemed impregnable, whence he had cast defiance, and
hurled back all assailants into the defiles below, that
rival now beheld the animated scene we have just
described. Soon the stern array of war was seen slowly
winding its way in densely serried ranks. A deep
silence had succeeded to the exulting shouts which he
had before heard; he paused and trembled, and so

8 Wace; Thierry ; Sismondi ; W. of Malms.; Ord. Vit.; W. Pict.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 41

unusual was the terror which struck into that bold
earl's heart, as the assailants drew nigh, that, in the
hope of allaying William's wrath, he hoisted a flag of
truce, and sent terms of capitulation to avert the
menaced assault.9 This was the third time in which
the formidable aspect and admirable discipline of
William's Normans had terrified his enemies into sub-
mission, without striking a blow. The rapid progress
of his affairs, from the moment he led his army in per-
son, is a remarkable proof that he had already improved
upon the example set him by men like Hollo de Gace,
and Roger de Beaumont, his first tutors in the field.

Scorning to treat with his ungrateful and rebel uncle,
William insisted upon his unqualified submission. So
indignant did he feel at his treachery, in having invited
the French king to ravage his dominions, that he would
probably have proceeded to extremities, had not the
intercession of De Beaumont and his friends prevented
his committing so great an error. The moment he
became cool, he saw his true policy, and, reproaching
himself, with that extraordinary command over his
.passions which he could exert on all great occasions,
he thanked his faithful counsellors. It was then urged
that if he took the Earl alive, he would be expected to
make an example of him, to deter other traitors and
pretenders to the succession. Feeling how much he
wanted support against so formidable an adversary as
the French king, William replied that it was neither
his wish nor his policy to punish his great barons with
severity. Having already secured more than one
powerful adherent by his politic clemency, he aimed
at obtaining such a reputation for generosity and mag-
9 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Walsingham.

42 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

nanimity as might render him popular alike in the
eyes of his vassals and his people.1 Means therefore
were devised to facilitate the rebel earl's escape, too
happy, doubtless, to have thus evaded the consequences
of his treasonable practices, his broken faith, and his
daring efforts to wrest the ducal sceptre from William's
hands. He first sought refuge at the French court ;
his estates were confiscated, and his castles were all
surrendered to his young and fortunate rival.

A temporary peace with Henry was the result of
this splendid success, for he dreaded to meet William's
army, now flushed with a victory unattended by any
loss. The unhappy earl, however, not having held out
to extremities, met with that cool reception due to un-
successful treachery. If he had really been appointed
a joint guardian of William, with his brother and the
French king, as some authorities assert, this was only a
further aggravation of his guilt. He was thus justly
punished by the son for the breach of honour and faith
committed against the father and the brother. He had
violated a sacred trust, with the additional enormity of
having brought upon his country the calamity of a
foreign invader, in the person of its most formidable and
insidious foe.2

The society of disappointed traitors is seldom agree-
able even to each other ; and the Earl of Arques found
himself neglected, both by the monarch and his nobles.
He soon afterwards withdrew from Paris and repaired
to Boulogne, where he entered into the service of Earl
Eustace, a great military adventurer.

William, having equally foiled the intrigues and

1 Wace ; Walsingham ; Mazeres ; W. Pict. ; Chron. de Nor.

2 Thierry ; Sismondi ; W. Gemit. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 43

repelled the arms of the French monarch, returned in
triumph to celebrate his victories in his native city.
The reputation of his early success daunted for a time
the wavering and turbulent barons, and intrigue and
conspiracy, retreating from the light, feared to raise the
banner of revolt, without the aid of some foreign power.
His military renown had not only the effect of checking
the spirit of dissension at home; it commanded the
respect of surrounding princes, effaced the stain of
birth, and pleaded a title stronger than that deduced
from legitimate succession, or from the adoption of his
father the late duke.

44

CHAPTER II.

Results of William's early campaigns — His moderate use of power — He
issues a general amnesty — Arbitrates between his turbulent lords —
His early love of order and discipline — Their good effects — He visits
his different states — His inquiries into their government and resources

Cultivates amity with his neighbours — Alarming conspiracy — His

narrow escape — Perilous adventures — The confederated barons take
the field — The duke compelled to act on the defensive — He retreats —
Induced to seek aid from the king of France — Bold and magnanimous
resolve — Places himself in Henry's power — Obtains his alliance and
support — Is joined by a French army headed by the king — Marches to
give battle to the insurgents — Sanguinary engagement — Victory of
William — Number of prisoners — His clemency and generosity — Pur-
sues the Count of Burgundy — Takes him prisoner — Restores his estates
— Attaches him to his interests — Complete suppression of the insur-
rection— Excellent measures adopted by the Duke — Rising power and
prosperity of Normandy — His enlightened government — High reputa-
tion— Beloved by his army — Respected by the people — His strict
execution of the laws — Dreaded by the great barons and their vassals
— Razes their strongholds and completes his conquest — Many insur-
gents withdraw into Sicily and Italy.

FROM the period when William assumed the reins of
government, and commenced his brilliant successes, re-
peated during the campaigns which took place between
1040 and 1045, the Norman laws were again administered
with some degree of impartiality and vigour. Armed
with the authority derived from the councils of the
state, both civil and ecclesiastical, as well' as with the
military power, he succeeded for a time in repressing
those wild and daring acts of insubordination which
had led to the most fatal results. Violence, rapine,
and assassination no longer insulted the face of open

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 45

day, dissolved the ties of society, and defied the ducal
government as well as the local authorities of the dis-
tricts and states.3

Still keeping in view the conciliatory policy he had
laid down, as recommended by De Gace, De Beaumont,
and the late duke's best counsellors, William published
a general amnesty, and invited the still existing factions
to take advantage of his clemency. He offered likewise
to become legal arbitrator in the feuds of some of the
great barons, and sought to secure the fidelity of his
powerful relatives and legitimate pretenders by the
most generous policy, accompanied with profuse grants
and honours.

One of the conditions in his amnesty shows the atten-
tion which he thus early paid to that system of discipline
and subordination so conducive to the establishment of
the feudal power, and afterwards widely diffused through-
out his dominions. " Be it known that barons, knights,
vassals, and all other Normans, shall lay down their
arms and not make use of them till necessary to defend
their own hearths and homes."4 Another of his objects
was to give stability to his government by encouraging
arts and industry in the cities, and a love of local
residence, as a check upon foreign adventure, especially
upon the inclination of the young nobility and knights
to engage in the campaigns of Southern Italy and
Spain; a measure which shows that he had views of
aggrandisement nearer home. The other provisions
were calculated, with equal wisdom, to repair the evils

3 Ord. Vital. ; W. of Malms. ; Sir W. Temple ; Intro. Littleton ; Henry ;
Lingard ; Brodie ; Alison.

4 Nouvelle Hist, de Normandie ; Laws of duke William ; Chron. de
Nor. ; Duchesne, Hist, de Nor.

46 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

caused by a depopulating civil war, and to extend and
consolidate the resources of the country by promoting
commerce, public buildings, and free ports.5

The good effects of this amnesty were soon perceptible,
and his subsequent endeavours in the capital and in
his visits to different districts to restore the country to
its allegiance, were far more effectual than all the
edicts of his former regency. The councils, consisting
of the special council of his chief prelates and barons,
and the general council or assembly of the States, com-
posed of deputies and notables from the cities, were the
next objects of his inquiry ; and he was soon engaged
in those statistical estimates which he subsequently
carried to such perfection in his registry of national
property in England. So far from indulging his warlike
genius, he sought to maintain peace with the adjacent
States, and contemporary authorities agree in describing
him at this period as a prince of the loftiest promise.6

The early development of mind and action forced
upon William by circumstances had made him a pre-
cocious soldier and statesman. His natural qualities,
his habits and education, had also excited in him a
chivalrous daring, tempered with singular judgment,
to which he united those enlarged ideas of government,
which indicated that he was formed to accomplish
greater things.7

5 Walsingham ; W. of Malms. ; Annals of Normandy.

e From 1042 to 1050. Duchesne ; Chron. de Nor.; W. of Malms.;
W. Pict.

7 The duke was at this time in the twentieth year of his age. His figure
was above the middle size ; his features were manly ; his deportment
dignified. He was extremely affable and agreeable in conversation. So
great was his strength that he could string a bow on horseback which no
other could bend.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 47

Having, with the aid of his newly-summoned councils
and his military vassals, established his ducal power, it
was his next object to render it permanent by the advan-
tages of foreign alliance. With the policy of an older
statesman, he temporised with the intriguing Henry,
and cultivated the friendship of those princes who,
jealous of that monarch, would be likely, in case of need,
to afford him their aid. But, in the midst of these
pacific labours, he was suddenly recalled to the field by
a danger more imminent than any that he had yet
encountered, involving not only his dominions but his
life. Singular good fortune alone, combined with the
utmost courage and decision, could avert the fatal blow
prepared for him. Such was the source of this foul
conspiracy ; such the secresy with which it was carried
on, and the character of its authors, that no wisdom
could have penetrated, no prudence have guarded
against it. The head of it was not only his relative,
but the friend and companion of his youth — Gruy of
Burgundy, whom he had enriched with broad domains,
and decorated with all the honours which it was in his
power to bestow.8

Intoxicated, perhaps, with his newly-acquired power,
Guy advanced his claims as the son of Alice, daughter of
duke Richard II., and aunt to William, and entered into
a conspiracy with Niel or Nielle, lord of the Cotentin,
Ranulph, Viscount of Bayonne, and other -malcontents.
Undeterred by the failure of similar attempts, he had
the presumption to imagine that the glory of over-

8 William is believed to have conferred upon him the government of
two counties, with their castles ; the feudal appanages of Brione and
Vernon, in addition to various baronial titles conferred upon him for his
services in the field. — Ord. Vit. ; W. Gemit.; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle
Hist, de Nor. ; Walsingham ; Continuation of St. Quentin.

48 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

throwing tlie son of duke Robert had been reserved for
him, firmly seated as he now was in the confidence and
admiration of his warlike Normans. The conspiracy
had extensive means; but openly to rally under his
banner the vassals of Brione and of Vernon would have
been fatal to his cause. It was only by a combination
of secret violence and fraud that he could hope for the
consummation of his atrocious plot.

Grenoult du Plessis, another lord of the powerful
district of Cotentin, joined the new league, and became
the bosom counsellor of the wily and ungrateful pre-
tender.9 The rude and remote district in which his
castles were situated, between Carentan and Coutances,
was well adapted for the " secret haunt of black con-
spiracy," and it became the rendezvous of William's
enemies of all ranks. Over this guilty conclave presided
the demon of foreign intrigue, intestine discord, hatred,
and revenge. The relatives of Du Plessis and the Count
de Bayeux, then engaged in hostilities with each other,
were invited to add their names to the sanguinary list.
Terms commensurate with so great a risk were offered
them if they would abandon their own quarrels, and
combine their forces against duke William. These were
accepted, and the rival barons joined the infamous
league. William, who had taken active measures to
suppress the last efforts of dissension in the Cotentin,
repaired to Valognes, as it is asserted by some writers,
upon a hunting excursion.

9 This infamous lord of the Cotentin is stated in the old chronicles to
have been a descendant— and a worthy one— of the renowned traitor and
buffoon, Ganellon, who proved such a thorn in the sides of Charlemagne,
and played so many fantastic tricks with his Paladins. « When Roland,
Brave, and Oliver," with many. another peer, had cause to rue their
acquaintance with the cunning and craven knight.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 49

On his arrival, however, he had the satisfaction to
learn that the belligerents had laid down their arms,
and he prepared to return to Rouen. Their knowledge
of the duke's approach was the signal for the conspirators
to throw off the mask, and consummate their treachery
with the dagger. They hastened, one by one, to avoid
exciting suspicion, to the town of Bayeux, in the hope of
cutting off his return. Having surrounded him at
Valognes, they resolved to avoid the risk of future failures
by at once despatching their victim in the tumult of a
night attack. Suspicions, however, were excited among
the towns-people, notwithstanding their utmost caution;
and, among others, a man named Galet, or Gillot, a species
of jester, attached to the duke's household, took the
alarm. He had preceded the arrival of his master, and
like the court-fools of that day, with more attachment
to the persons of their lieges than could be found amongst
their favourites and ministers, he possessed a shrewdness
peculiar to his profession, in which the glimpses of real
wit gave a zest to apparent folly. He contrived to insi-
nuate himself into the table-talk of the conspirators, and
heard enough to convince him that some project, aiming
at the duke's life, was on foot. Throwing aside his cap
and bells, Galet seized his staff, and, if we are to believe
his chronicler, used it so well as to reach Valognes
before midnight. Refusing to confide his information
to a second person, he gained admission, and knocked
loudly at the duke's chamber-door : " Arise, arise, my
lord, if you love your life!" and he immediately
acquainted him with the circumstances and the extent
of the danger.1 It is stated that the motives which

1 When the rank and numbers of the conspirators are considered, it
seems highly probable that William should at first refuse to credit the
VOL. I. E

50 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

impelled the poor jester to make so extraordinary an as-
sertion proceeded from gratitude to the duke for having
formerly assisted him when at a sore pinch. " He even
bestowed upon him," says his naive chronicler, ' ( his old
clothes," enabling him, doubtless, by such a benefaction
to make a more brilliant appearance at court and at the
castle feasts.

William was at first inclined to discredit his story.
Was it probable that his most confidential friends and
adherents — the counsellors and supporters, too, of his
father — upon whom he had heaped honours with a lavish
hand, had combined to assassinate him in cold blood ?
But, moved by the repeated assurances of his faithful
fool, he reflected some moments, and then rose in haste,
and without giving a single order, is said to have sad-
dled his steed with his own hands, and set off at speed.

As he dashed through the barriers in the direction of
Veez St. Clement, he heard the heavy tramp of horse
and the rattling of arms ; they were his pursuers. They
had attacked the place the moment after he had fled,
and were now doubly intent upon taking his life, from
a consciousness that their guilt was known. Better
mounted, also, they were gradually gaining ground
upon him, but retaining his self-possession, the duke
suddenly struck off into a by-path, and, favoured by the
darkness, eluded his assassins. Plunging into a small
thicket, he remained concealed there until they had

story told him by a simple jester. The wonder is that he so soon pene-
trated the real truth, and made such a timely escape. The names of the
conspirators prove the extent of this formidable combination : they were
the lords of Thorigny, Ham on le Dentu (sharp-toothed Ham on), the
wily Du Plessis, and other lords of the Cotentin and of Bessin, then
busily engaged in making their night attack. — Nouv. Hist, de Kor. ;
Chron. de Walsingham.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 51

passed on tlieir way. Still it required tlie utmost degree
of caution to escape falling into their hands. Bayeux
and the adjacent districts were in the interest of the
conspirators, and he was compelled to pursue his route
in the direction of the sea-shore.

Towards the break of day, the duke reached a little
village, called Ryes/ and observed a man seated at the
court-gate of a stately mansion, ready equipped to go
forth, waiting for his steed. The duke wished to pass
by unnoticed, but his horse was so jaded that it was
remarked by the seigneur, for such he was, who, recog-
nising William, respectfully saluted him, and said :
" My lord duke, is it you ? How came you with so
poor equipment, and in so sad a plight ? " " Tell me
first," replied the duke, "who you are, and why you
ask the question?" "Upon my honour," rejoined the
seigneur, " they call me Hubert de Ryes, and from you,
as lord suzerain, I hold this village under the Count de
Bessin : 3 yet speak boldly and fear nothing ; for, upon

2 In the quaint language of the chronicler, — " as though God had so
disposed it, the seigneur, or master of that small place, had arisen and
gone forth, and was then seated by his gate." — Chron. de Nor. ; Nouv.
Hist.

3 This noble, we must recollect, was one of the conspirators, and
William had good reason for wishing to pass unrecognised. But honest
Hubert made a proper distinction of persons, and preserved allegiance to
his lord paramount, proving that he had both more sense and fidelity than
his immediate landlord.

The dialogue is curious, also, as showing the conditions of military
tenure in Normandy, which in this case do not seem to have imposed
service upon the immediate tenant in waging war against the lord
paramount, for on such a condition the master of Ryes would have for-
feited his feudal tenure. It shows also that the feudal system, upon the
subletting chain of tenure, was then establishe'd in Normandy, and how
nearly it approached the regular feudal state afterwards established both
there and throughout England.

E 2

52 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

my honour, I will consult your safety as much as if you
were in ray own skin." The duke then frankly told
him the whole adventure, after which "the good
seigneur" led him into his mansion, offered him
refreshments, and commanded one of his fleetest steeds
to be in readiness. Then, calling up his three sons, all
of them noble chevaliers, he said, " Behold your liege
lord and master ; be quick — mount, and show your duty
to your prince and to me. Look well to his safety ;
conduct him to Falaise without touching the high road,
or entering into a single town." William pursued his
route attended by his guides, traversed the country in
a direct line, forded the river Orne,4 and after a hard
ride, reached the city of Falaise without accident, to
the joy of his faithful Normans.

This remarkable incident in William's life is believed
to have occurred in the year 1044; and how narrowly he
escaped is evident from different historical accounts,
well authenticated by contemporary documents relative
to this conspiracy and its results.5

The duke's pursuers were close upon his track, and
the honest Hubert, to give him a further advantage, and
perhaps to save the lives of his own sons, when ques-
tioned by them, offered to lead them on the route he

4 It is recorded that the duke passed the ford near the river Mutrecy,
in 1044, which offers a farther corroboration of the period when the Earl
of Burgundy's insurrection took place. It does not appear for what
reason the old chroniclers agree in calling the river Orne by the name of
Foupendant. There is also up to this day a farm in the neighbourhood
of the river which bears the name of Mutrecy; it is about four miles
distant from the river.

5 Alluding to the duke's good fortune on this occasion, one of his ear-
lier biographers humorously observes, in his quaint manner, " In actions
of weight it is good to employ our best endeavours ; but when all is said,
'lie danceth well to whom Fortune doth pipe so well." " — Hay ward, Lives, &c.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 53

had taken, affecting at the same time perfect ignorance
of their nefarious project. He conducted them, how-
ever, in a contrary direction, and every now and then
he encouraged them in their speed by exclaiming, " My
name is Hubert ! upon honour ! Ride sharp, we shall
come up with him soon ! " *

In commemoration of his wonderful escape, we are
told that William ultimately punished his enemies by
compelling them to construct the terre levee* which runs
through a large tract of country, as a lasting memorial
of their treachery, and to mark the scene of his extra-
ordinary adventure. It is not easy to describe the
feelings of mingled rage and fear which seized the
conspirators when aware of William' s arrival at
Falaise. Flight or open war was the sole alternative
left to them, and they decided upon the latter, in the
hope of enlisting the support of the French monarch.
They already formed a powerful confederacy, and vassals
and bands of freebooters were now summoned to their
aid from all sides. The name of William the Bastard
was anathematised, and forbidden to be spoken through-
out the whole extent of the Cotentin8 and the adjacent

6 M. de Bras ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Walsingham.

7 This singular monument consists of a chemin hawse, or terraced
road ; the most useful, perhaps, he could have erected to mark his escape
from the hands of his pursuers. Following the direction of his flight, it
indicated the most direct route across the country, from the vicinity
of Valognes through the intervening district to Bayeux, and thence to
his strong town and castle-fortress of Falaise. A portion of this elevated
line is still to be seen, situated between the villages of Ouilly le Tesson,
Caitheoux, and Fresni le Pucceux, after a lapse of 760 years.

s A large territory, comprehending several counties, with their dis-
tricts, towns, and castles ; but at that time it was comparatively savage
and wild, owing to long, depopulating wars. It received its name, pro-
bably, from its geographical position, which runs parallel to an extended
line of coast. — Nouv. Hist, de Normandie.

54 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

districts. Having organised their forces they deter-
mined to attack the duke before he had time to rally his
friends and recover from his surprise.

They formed, in fact, the majority of the great barons
and their vassals, upon whose aid William had himself
relied in the event of a fresh contest with the French
king. The next intimation he received of the existence
of this formidable conspiracy was the appearance of an
immense force in the field, which made a sudden attack
upon the city of Caen.

This was the first time that William had been found
unprepared to meet so threatening a crisis; he was
certainly taken by surprise, and it is the most extra-
ordinary event in his whole career, that he should again
have risen superior to circumstances, and even turned
them to the greatest advantage. Fortune seems indeed
to love the brave, and to suggest to them the only
means of converting the greatest difficulties into sources
of fresh triumph.

Too late aware of having been treacherously over-
reached, his anxiety and agitation are stated to have
been extreme.9 But the perils of William's position
had early taught him the art of dissimulation, and to
assume the firmest countenance in the worst position.
He strengthened the outworks of Falaise, and, having
reinforced the garrison, entrusted the command of it to
a man of tried fidelity, named Bellain de Blainville.
Then, making a forced march upon Rouen, he attempted
to raise an additional force, sufficient to cope with his
powerful enemies in the field. Volunteers, and even
decrepit veterans, who had served under duke Robert
and Richard the Good, came to join his banners; but

9 Ord. Vit. ; Walsingham ; Nouv. Hist, do Nor.; W. of Malms.; W. Pick

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 55

his enemies, being largely reinforced with foreign mer-
cenaries and adventurers, bore down upon the duke's
small body of Normans, while he cautiously retired.

In this exigency, apprehensive also of an immediate
attack on the side of France, William saw no means of
safety except in negotiation and delay. At Rouen he
advised with his uncle the archbishop, who, aware that
the confederates were led by a man of consummate
military skill, Niel, urged him by no means to risk his
dukedom upon a battle, but to throw himself upon the
justice and consideration of his former guardian and
ally, the French king.

Startled at this bold but dubious policy, the duke
fixed his penetrating eye upon the prelate, "as if he
would peruse his inmost soul." * It was met, however,
with an unquailing look ; and, before his enemies could
lay siege to the capital, duke William was in the pre-
sence of the monarch of France, prepared to play the
part of his own ambassador.

In very critical circumstances, measures that would
otherwise deserve to> be called rash and desperate
are really the most wise and prudent, and the duke
now experienced this encouraging truth. The frank
appeal to his former guardian and protector had the
desired success. He stated all the advantages of an
alliance with himself, in opposition to those proposed
to the king by the conspirators against his life and
dignity. He called to mind the signal services rendered
by duke Robert, and the sacred engagements into which
Henry had entered on his departure. He then pressed
his cause on the ground of the king's own interests in
so effectual a manner that the monarch was greatly

, 1 Nouv. Hist, cle Nor. ; Duchesne ; Chron. de Nor. ; Mazeres.

56 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

moved.2 " But/' he boldly concluded, " dismissing all
arguments of honour and good faith, it is impossible,
my liege, for men so deeply dyed with ingratitude and
treachery, as those who are now aiming at my life, to
prove loyal and faithful to any master. Suppose me to
fall their victim, they will instantly direct their ill-
acquired power against the monarch whom, by their
infamous calumnies, they would exasperate to take up
arms to the injury of his first vassal and best ally."3

Such were among the powerful representations made
by the duke, and Henry, regretting the lengths to which
he had formerly gone, declared that he had now for the
first time heard the truth. He was sure, he added,
that he must have been grossly deceived, meaning,
doubtless, that he perceived it would be more advantage-
ous for him to enter into stricter alliance with William,
than to aid his rebellious barons in proceeding to
extremities against him. Gratified, perhaps, also, by the
confidence reposed in him, if not animated with the
chivalrous enthusiasm inspired by the young duke, and
the generosity and clemency he had displayed, Henry
declared that he would not only join him, but lead his
own troops in person, and reinstate him in full autho-
rity, by right of his suzerainship,4 not less than by the
laws of feudal brotherhood and honour.

2 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Walsinghara ; Duchesne. 3 Ibid.

4 The title of suzerain, or lord paramount, on the part of Henry, was,
however, very doubtful. At all events, it was merely nominal, without
tenure of military service as regarded Normandy. It was merely a fief-
dom to perform homage ; and not as the law of service, which existed
between Normandy and Brittany. This is essential to keep in view, in
considering the relative position of the parties, and the transactions which
took place between Henry and William at this time, and between Henry's
successors and the Anglo-Norman monarchs. It would appear, from the
curious narrative left by Dudon de St. Quentin, that Charles the Simple

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 57

A French army was speedily equipped, while William
repaired to Rouen, where he assembled his Normans,
and the few barons, with their vassals, who still remained
faithful to him. 5 The point fixed upon for the junction
of their respective forces was the county of Hyemes, in
the vicinity of Argentau. They then advanced towards
Caen, and took up a position between Mezidon and
Argences. They formed distinct camps, the French
being near the river Aizon, and that of the Normans
upon the Meance, where they awaited the attack of the
insurgent barons.

The Count du Cotentin, Niel or Nigellus, having
ascertained the exact position of the two princes,
marched to give them battle. He encamped in the
Val de Dunes, about nine miles from Caen, between
Argences and Cinglais.6 An engagement was inevitable,

made a free gift of the country called Neustria, as well as of Brittany, to
Hollo, without the usual conditions of feudal service. Nearly all con-
temporary and following historians, however, seem to take no exception
to them. Yet the Norman dukes were more really lord suzerains, as
regarded Brittany, which could hardly have been the case if Charles the
Simple had reserved that title to the crown of France. Thatjcingdom
then comprised little more than Paris, Orleans, Etampes, Melun, Bourges,
Compiegne, and their dependencies. The other parts were the appanages
of the great barons, who, though they rendered homage, were perfectly
free in their regal and legislative capacity, and exercised full sovereignty
over their vassals. — Dudon de St. Quentin ; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouv. Hist.

5 These lords, with their knights and vassals, " amongst the faithless,
faithful only they," — consisted of the counts of Vexin, of Roumenoit ;
those of the Lieuoin ; the districts of Beaumont, of Auge and Caux, as
well as the important sees of Evreux and Caen.

6 A contemporary chronicler gives, in the following rude verses, a de-
scription of the relative positions of the French and Norman allies, on the
eve of the famous battle of the Val de Dunes : —

S( Entre Argences et Mezidon
Sur la riviere de 1'Azon,

58 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

and the immense prize at stake — at once for empire and
for life — was likely to render it an obstinate and desperate
struggle. After hearing mass, the two princes put the
heads of their divisions into motion. The king observed
a strong body of the enemy's horse preparing to charge
upon the spot where he and the duke stood. Not one
of this gallant company was seen without some device
upon the point of his lance.7 The duke too, marking
their close array, was at first greatly perplexed, till per-
ceiving Hollo de Tesson at their head, with the ducal
arms upon his banner, he advanced, exclaiming that
they were his friends ; and his words were caught up
and repeated with cheers by the Normans. This bold
stratagem had an effect similar to that of Napoleon's
appeal to his veterans, after his return from Elba, and the
revolted Normans stopped and wavered. Their leader,
who had been gained over, and now appeared under
false colours, turned to his companions, and said : f e They
falter ! the count and Regneault expect me this day to
keep my word, and be the first to strike the bastard
William in the melee ; yet to him didl swear fealty and do
homage. I know not how to act." " Take heed," was the
reply of one of his companions, " what you do. Let us
join him : and you may still keep your oath to the con-
federates by approaching him, and touching him with

Se hebergerent ceux de France

Et joux tant les eaux de Meance ;

Qui par Argences va courant

Se hebergerent ceux li Normans

Qui a Guilliaume se tenoient." — Chron. de Nor. Hist.
? In compliance, it seems, with the fashion of the eleventh century,
these knights had decorated their arms with emblems and devices com-
posed of their ladies' favourite colours. — Hist, de Nor. ; Duchesne ;
Ord. Vit. ; Dudon de St. Quentin, Contin. 8 Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 59

your gauntlet, and this being done, fight stoutly in his
behalf." De Tesson availing himself of this Jesuitical
expedient, rode alone up to the place where William
was conversing with the French king, and, after saluting
him, struck him gently upon the shoulder, saying, " Be
not angry, my lord duke, it is only to acquit myself of
a certain vow I have made ; I will this day discharge my
duty towards you loyally as becomes a vassal, and so
will this company of knights/' The duke smiling on
him, made reply : ' ' Raoul, you have my thanks ; now
see to acquit yourself well, I pray you ! " 9

The Normans, led by William, and drawn up in com-
pact ranks, commenced the attack. The insurgent
army also forming an extended line, and numbering
20,000 combatants, advanced with impetuosity to meet
the duke's onset. So great was the ardour on both
sides, that the bowmen had barely time for one dis-
charge of arrows, before horse and foot closed in the
fierce melee. The duke was opposed to the Count de
Bayeux, and the king to the force of the Yiscomte du
Cotentin. Henry, being rather corpulent and unwieldy,
was so roughly handled in the encounter by a knight
named Guillisen,1 that he was knocked down and in
danger of being trampled^jpon or slain.2 The duke at
length succeeded in breaking the ranks of the Count de
Bessin,3 and was about to attack him lance in

9 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Walsingham ; W. of Malms. ; Vie de Guil-
leaume, &c. ; Ord. Vit. * Ibid.

2 This redoubtable Guillisen, who broke the French ranks, subse-
quently retired, with a number of the disaffected, to Apulia, where he
joined Robert Guiscard and his freebooters, and contrived to carry on the
war by laying popes and princes alike under the contribution of the sword.

3 The war-cry of the Normans was, Dieu aide et notre Dame; that of
the French, Montjoie St. Denis; while the rebels shouted, St. Sever,
Hamon, St. Amand.

60 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

hand, when his squire, named Bardon, threw himself
between, and fell dead hy the thrust intended for
his master. At the same time Hollo de Tesson
made a gallant charge, and completed the overthrow of
the enemy.

The historic bards, then the great chroniclers, did
not fail to commemorate the feats of William in befitting
verse. The two lines composed by an anonymous
poet, with reference to this decided victory, led the way
to other effusions, which display the profound policy of
the duke and his prelate counsellor, in having gained
over king Henry to his interests : —

" De Cotentin partit la lance
Qui ren versa le roi de France ;" —

a singular historic truth as regarded the fortunes of
William and those of his intriguing rival. His repu-
tation in the eyes of other powers was increased by this
master-stroke of policy, which, impressing his legitimate
relatives and turbulent barons with respect, crowned
his previous good fortune, and fixed his power. What
might not be expected from a leader who, at the age of
twenty-two, had triumphed over so many enemies ?

King Henry returned to his capital, and the duke, on
learning that Guy himself had sought refuge in his
strong castle of Brione, and refused to send in his sub-
mission, marched and laid siege to the place, made
himself master of the traitor's person, and, though he
deprived him of the rich counties of Brione and Vernon,
treated him with extraordinary lenity, magnanimity,
and even respect.4 It was the general expectation that

4 When William duke of Normandy had suppressed the rebellion of
Guy of Burgundy, who was his " homager" for the two castles of Brione
on the river Rille and Vernon on the Seine, which the young duke had

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 61

he would have expiated his offences upon the scaffold ;
but not yet estranged from the policy he had hitherto
pursued, William sought to reconcile his love of aggran-
disement with a degree of generosity and clemency, as
regarded the lives of his enemies.5 He even settled a
handsome provision upon his legitimate rival ; treated
him with the same marks of distinction as before, and
invited him to resume his former position at the ducal
court. The jealousy, however, of other aspirants, who
murmured loudly, declaring that the penalty of banish-
ment ought at least to have been enforced against him,
induced the fallen pretender to withdraw, and enter the
service of the Count of Maine, But, the ill odour of
unsuccessful treachery still following him, he at last
retired into his native country. At a subsequent
period he highly distinguished himself in the service of
the duke, and headed a large body of veteran troops at
the famous battle of Hastings.

generously given him, and had taken prisoners both Guy himself and
many of his companions, who were Normans, and consequently to be
considered as rebels, he pardoned both Guy and them in the manner
described in this sentence : " Supplicia quce capitalia ex cequo irrogaren-
tur condonare maluit." Hence it would appear that, by the laws of Nor-
mandy, rebels might at this time be punished with death. This fact
seems the more worth observing, because, in that age, the crimes of mur-
der, robbery, and most other great offences, were visited only with
pecuniary fines, according to the law of many nations of Europe. —
Historia Ang. ; Gesta Guillielmi Ducis, apud Mazeres, 61.

5 The obligation of a feudal tenant to attend his lord in the wars,
called Satellitii debitum, had been evidently broken by Guy of Burgundy,
and he was subject to the extreme penalty of the feudal law for treason
to the lord paramount. We meet in the old authors with the word
satellites, which must be understood of feudal or military tenants attend-
ing their lords in the wars, and not of hired guards. It appears also from
many passages, that all William's armies in these Norman and French
wars were made up of feudal tenants, called together by the obligation of
their tenures to assist their lord. — Gesta Guil. Ducis, apud Mazeres.

62 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Fortunately for William, tlie result of this great
conspiracy was to consolidate his power, and draw closer
the bonds of alliance with the French king. He lost no
time in extinguishing the last embers of revolt. More
wary and provident as he pursued his career, he saw
how much easier it is to reach a lofty eminence of power,
than to maintain it. He was not again to be taken by
surprise; and his first object was to remodel and com-
plete that strict system of police, which at a future day
enabled him to hold in awe the greatest nation in
Europe. Conspiracy had no place to hide its head;
and the compulsory order which he established, compre-
hending some modern rules of espionnage, soon rooted
out those secret domestic enemies who had threatened
his dominion and his life.

It was by such means that William succeeded in
awing his great prelates and barons, securing the allegi-
ance of their vassals, restoring subordination, and the
authority of the neglected laws. We learn from con-
temporary authorities,6 that by the complete suppression
of this rebellion, comparative peace and plenty were
everywhere restored; that all men could follow their
occupations without danger, and that travellers, as well

6 W. Pict. ; Ord. Vit. ; Walsingham ; Chron. de Nor. ; Chron. Sax. ;
W. Malms. It appears that there were at this time merchants, or trades-
men, negociatores, in Normandy. They were most probably many of them
like our pedlars, or perhaps those tradesmen who transact their affairs
by travelling about with their goods from one place to another. The
operation of the Norman feudal law, in fines, &c., upon this and other
sources of public industry and prosperity is shown in the following passage
of W. Pictaviensis: "Ecdesiarumbona,agrestiumlabores}negociatorum lucra,
militum prcedam injuste fieri dolebat." In fact, the inherent vices of the
system counteracted the best and most enlightened efforts of William to
render it tolerable in Normandy, and it became far less endurable in
England.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 63

as traders and agriculturists, rejoiced in being enabled to
remove, without risk, from place to place. From the
precautions now adopted by the duke, it would indeed
appear to have been as well understood at that period as
in the present times that facilities of travel form an
indispensable requisite in the institutions of a trading
and commercial community.

The accurate knowledge of his real position and
strength, permitted William to show a magnanimity
which, though it had its source in personal interest
rather than in clemency, had a material influence in
establishing his title and consolidating his power.
William was an enlightened despot; and, when his
barons and his people offered him no provocation for the
display of that avarice and ambition by which he was
actuated, he maintained the character of a wise and
judicious ruler.

The enemies whom he had vanquished were men of
great power, of high military reputation and experience,
upon which they had calculated for success as opposed
to his defective title and to his extreme youth. It is
difficult to say whether this fact places his good fortune,
his popularity with the Normans, or his distinguished
merits, in the most striking point of view. But that he
acted with as much magnanimity and generosity as
judgment in the use of his victory, his conduct to his
prisoners afforded the most incontrovertible proofs.
While he deprived the Count du Cotentin, of a portion
of his estates, he permitted him to retire into Brittany ;
and the traitor Du Plessis, though imprisoned after
renewing his intrigues, was not put to death.

These men, be it remembered, and other great con-
spirators, had, on the contrary, attempted to deprive

64 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

William both of his crown and his life.7 The insurgents
of meaner rank, with their offending vassals, were
included in a general amnesty, and many were even
restored to favour. The only punishment inflicted was
a preventive one, as useful to themselves as to their
prince — the destruction of their strongholds, those nests
of sedition, violence, and oppression. A few there were,
the most desperate and obdurate, who, regarding the
duke's pardon as a humiliation, preferred to join the
banners of the adventurer, Robert Guiscard, in Naples,
and contented themselves with the ravage of Apulia,
Calabria, and Sicily.8

It was during his subsequent residence at Falaise
that William has been absurdly accused by some of the
Saxon historians9 of committing an act of assassination,
the more atrocious because unnecessary. It should be
recorded therefore solely with a view to its exposure
and refutation, for though capable, perhaps, of per-
petrating deeds of violence and even crimes, it is dim-
cult to make posterity believe that a prince like William
would commit acts of infatuation and useless cruelty.
The parties, moreover, were nearly connected with
King Edward the Confessor, a monarch with whom it

7 These illustrious desperadoes, despairing of success by fair means,
seem to have adopted for their motto against William, the Roman impre-
catory resolve :

" Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo."

8 That redoubtable knight, Robert Guiscard, the son of Tancred, was
one of the most formidable freebooters and scourges of popes and princes
of his day. He rose from the rank of a mere military marauder into
the higher grades of the profession, became a commander of free bands,
and pursued his devastations in the south of Europe with astonishing
success. He had two brothers, almost equally illustrious, who became
the terror of surrounding nations, often at the head of 20,000 men.

9 Ord. Vit. Hist. Ang. p. 313.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 65

was the duke's special interest that he should con-
tinue in the most amicable relations. Walter, Earl
of Ponthieu, nephew of the Confessor, and his wife
Biota, while at an entertainment given by William
at his palace, are reported to have been poisoned on
the same night. The first propagators of this strange
story, and of some others resembling it, will appear in
the course of our narrative, and sufficiently establish,
not the heinous accusations brought against the duke,
but their own malignant character, jealous hatred, and
disappointment. It is little to be wondered at that
such charges as these have been fabricated, and sedu-
lously spread from age to age in derogation of a cha-
racter so pre-eminently great as that of the conqueror
of Harold, and the subverter of the Anglo-Saxon empire
in England.

It is enough to observe that the mind guilty of the
mean, treacherous, and cruel acts attributed to duke
William must have been utterly incapable of conceiving
those lofty enterprises, grand plans, bold and open
means of executing them, which are in themselves the
best evidence of a generous and magnanimous nature.
Ingratitude to his Norman adherents, their banishment,
and the confiscation of their estates, form another
charge, which both his previous and his subsequent
actions all tend to disprove. One of the facts on which
this charge is founded — his treatment of William War-
ling, Earl of Montolieu — is alleged to have occurred
about the period of his present residence at Falaise
(1048),1 when he had first succeeded in quelling the
more turbulent of his great barons.

Descended from the first Norman duke, William's

1 W. Gemiticensis, ap. Mazeres ; Ordericus Vitalis.
VOL. I. F

66 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

own great-grandfather, this influential noble was sus-
pected, we are told, of an intention to renew the baronial
wars. A retainer of his, a young Norman, in pursuit
of fortune, was one day complaining of the idle and
unprofitable life he led, since the great barons were
subdued. " Indeed/' he added, "I have serious thoughts
of riding into Apulia, and joining the Guiscards, while
I have yet a steed and armour upon my back. I shall
never live through this peace ; my poverty will soon be
my only counsellor."

" If you will believe," replied the earl, " what I am
now about to tell you, you will stop where you are in
Normandy. Within the space of two or three months,
there will be a great change, which will leave you at
liberty to help yourself in proportion to your own
courage and activity." Upon this pleasing assurance,
young Bigot determined to stay where he was, and
in a short time he was introduced to the duke him-
self, through the good offices of his relative, the
bishop of Avranches. William is said to have received
him in a very gratifying manner, and to have admitted
him into his familiar conversation. Captivated with
so much courtesy and kindness, the young knight
requited it by communicating to the duke what had
passed between himself and the earl. " Ah ! sits the
wind so ! " thought the duke, and straightway he sends
for the said William Warling, earl of Montolieu, who
appears before him. "What mean you, my lord, by
those assurances y6u have lately given to Robert Bigot."
This was a question which the earl found it difficult to
answer, and, having nothing satisfactory to say, he
considered it to be his wisest course to decline all expla-
nations by continuing silent. The duke then, we are

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 67

told, gave way to violent rage, and cried out, with one
of his terrible looks : " I see plainly how it is, though
you do not choose to own it. I will tell you what you
meant by speaking in this manner to that good young
man. Your intention was to raise fresh troubles in
Normandy, and by a new rebellion to attempt to deprive
me of my inheritance. Having this evil design in your
heart, you scrupled not to seduce this young soldier
from his duty, by promising that Normandy would soon
afford a harvest to men of enterprise. But/ sir, we
have had enough of these disturbances, and Normandy
stands greatly in need of peace and repose to repair the
mischiefs occasioned by war. Now, I trust that you
are a false prophet, and that we shall continue to enjoy
for many years the peace which I have at length
established. But, to effect this, we must first be rid of
such turbulent personages as yourself. Hear my words,
sir ! I command you to quit the duchy without delay,
and never to presume to set your foot in it again, so
long as I shall be alive." Earl William, of Montolieu,
not ill-pleased to escape upon such terms, immediately
quitted Normandy for Apulia, attended by only one
squire, the duke taking quiet possession of his earldom,
which he settled upon his half-brother, Robert, the son
of his mother by the Earl of Canterville, whom she had
married after duke Robert's decease.2

It is not at all improbable that this scene may really
have occurred; but the conversion of it into a charge
recorded to the discredit of William shows the extreme
embarrassment under which his enemies laboured, at that
period at least, to find any reasonable accusations by

2 W. Gemiticensis, 1. vii. cap. 19 ; Hist. Aug. Gesta Gal.

68 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

which, to dim the lustre of his successes. Upon the sup-
position of the earl's guilt, William's conduct was not
only justifiable, but evinced moderation and lenity. It
is true that it was deficient in the forms of law, the
accused not being brought to a trial for his offence
before any court of judicature. But this might not be
necessary according to the laws of Normandy then in
force, when the person charged with a crime by the duke
himself did not deny it. For it was customary in those
days for the dukes of Normandy to administer justice
in person.3 And it would appear by his silence that earl
William himself was desirous that the matter should not
be brought before a regular tribunal ; but was content
to submit to the sentence pronounced upon him by his
offended lord. It was, in fact, a mitigation of that to
which he would have been liable by law, and which
would have brought his life into jeopardy.

With regard to the accusation of ingratitude to his
followers, brought by his rebellious barons both in Nor-
mandy and in England, it is equally unworthy of being
entertained as a general charge ; the duke having indis-
putably injured his popular character as a ruler by
pursuing the opposite extreme. The adjudications
given in his numerous wardships offer the best refu-
tation to such a charge. Thus, for example, when king
of England, upon the death of the famous William
Fitzosborne, the Conqueror granted the castle of Bre-
teuil, and all his other lands in Normandy, to his eldest
son, William de Breteuil ; and all his great possessions
in England to his second son, Roger, Earl of Hereford,
who indeed displayed the most revolting ingratitude in

3 Excerpta Orderico Vital! ap. Mazeres, p. 303.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 69

return for this liberal and noble treatment. It was the
more honourable, as, in that instance, the Conqueror
does not seem to have been tied down by any fixed rule
or law upon the subject, but was governed entirely by
his own judgment and discretion.

70

CHAPTER III.

William consolidates his power — Attention to his foreign interests and
relations — Inquires into the laws of Normandy — Their feudal cha-
racter— Engages in pubh'c works — Motives of his pacific policy —
Dangerous position of king Henry — Geoffrey Martel, Earl of Anjou,
invades France — Noble conduct of William — Admirable promptitude
— Throws himself between Henry's capital and the invader — Compels
him to retreat — Rage and disappointment of Martel — Exploits of
William — Jealousy of the king — He enters into a separate treaty with
the earl — Difficult position of William — He is compelled to retreat —
Pursued by Martel into Normandy — Devastations committed by the
invader — William strengthens his fortresses — Too weak to attack
the enemy — Admirable mode of warfare — The old guerilla system —
His skill and address in defensive warfare' — His flying columns — War
of posts — Sieges and gallant actions — Raises the siege of Domfront —
Challenges and pursues the invader — Former clemency and magna-
nimity— His triumph — Falls into an ambuscade — Narrow escape — •
Splendid action — Recovers his dominion — Singular rencounter — William
makes peace with Geoffrey Martel — Returns to Rouen — Grand
tary assembly and reviews — He rewards his troops — Declares
intention of visiting the court of England — Is received by Ed\
with marked distinction — Prepares the groundwork of his future sue
cesses — Enmity of earl Godwin's party — Danger of William — ]
attends the king in a progress through the country — Visits the
tresses — Portrait of the duke at Edward's court — Court festivitie
Sudden recall into Normandy — His alliance with the court of Flaudt
— Passion for his beautiful cousin, Lady Matilda — Long courtship-
Singular scene — William's perseverance and success — His
Anecdotes — Courtly festivities — Awkward dilemma — Rupture with
uncle, the archbishop— Appeals to the pope — The celebrated Lanf
— Success of William — Obtains a dispensation — The archbishop
disgrace — William founds the abbey of St. Stephen— His brother
— The duchess Matilda— New war with France, and rout of Hei

brother Eudo — Sarcastic lines addressed to him by William Sue

of William in Anjou and Maine— Anecdotes and exploits — Fe

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 71

institutions — Rise of the great towns — Encouragement of trade and
commerce — Equilibrium of the interests of his states — Government —
Police — Councils — Ceremonies — Foreign influence and reputation —
Alleged conspiracy — The duchess Matilda — Her vindictive spirit — Her
influence over William — His credulity and uxorious passion.

So rapid had been the progress and so great the ac-
quisitions of William in his last campaign, that from
this period4 the wars of the barons and of the succes-
sion may be said to have ceased in Normandy. Hence-
forward he appears in a more extended and important,
though less perilous, field of action. His wars are with
foreign potentates and princes; his policy aimed to extend
as well as to consolidate the power of Normandy. Here,
too, his success was proportioned to the skill and judg-
ment with which his plans were conceived and executed.
He had succeeded in extinguishing the last sparks of
insurrection ; and he now devoted himself with ability
and vigour to develop the resources of the country, and
to repair the evils caused by domestic and foreign broils.

In 1046, and the ensuing year, we find him earnestly
engaged with his " councils" in enacting new and
revising the old laws of Normandy, in accordance with
the growing spirit and the spread of feudalism. At the
same time he was alive to the importance of promoting
public works, of improving his sea-ports, and gradually
forming a commercial and naval power. Actuated by
the adventurous spirit of the times, he already enter-
tained ulterior views of conquest and aggrandisement ;
to which may be traced the motive of his pacific labours
and his anxiety to strengthen his alliance with the French
king and the neighbouring princes of Poitou, Anjou ana
Maine.

But, before he had time to mature his new plans, he

4 1046 to 1048. W. of Malms. ; Ord. Vit. ; W. Pict. ; Walsingham.

72 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

was suddenly recalled to the field by a pressing danger,
which threatened his ally of France, and even the stabi-
lity of that monarch's throne. Geoffrey Martel, one of
the most ambitious princes of his time, with singular
audacity, advanced his claims as Earl of Anjou to an
integral portion of the French monarchy. Confident
in his high military reputation and power, he prepared
to besiege Henry in his capital. The young duke had
thus an opportunity of evincing his sense of the service
rendered by his lord suzerain and ally in the late cam-
paign. His policy accorded in this instance with his
feelings ; and Fortune seemed already to encourage the
views of her favourite, with regard to the annexation of
Maine. Fearless of the boasted genius and skill of his
adversary, then esteemed the first leader in Europe,
William threw himself boldly between the invader and
"the good city" of Paris. The earl pronouncing this
to be a false movement, prepared to make sure of his
prey. Long celebrated for his victories over the cap-
tains opposed to him, he had never hitherto suffered a
reverse.

Having no apprehension of so young an aspirant 5 to
fame, he trusted to his own military skill as a counter-
poise to the junction of William with the power of
France. What was his surprise and chagrin, therefore,
to find himself outgeneralled, and gradually driven
from point to point, almost without a struggle, into the
heart of his own dominions. The duke carried the
castle of Moulines in a style that extorted the admira-
tion of his adversary not less than of his oldest soldiers.

5 Afterwards, however, when he had experienced the force of William's
genius, as well as of his arm, he was heard to declare that " if William
the Bastard should survive some years, he would become one of the
greatest commanders Europe had ever seen." — Life of Geoffrey Martel, &c-

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 73

He directed every operation of the field ; was seen at
every spot where danger menaced, and, though only
in his 24th year, foiled all the manoeuvres of his
veteran and experienced adversary. He also displayed
traits of personal heroism, exceeding even the standard
required by the spirit of high adventure, and of feudal
devotion to the cause of a " lord suzerain," in seasons
of adversity or distress. On one occasion, while recon-
noitring the enemy with only four or five of his knights,
he was surprised by an ambuscade laid by his wily foe,
consisting of twelve select horsemen. He was called
upon to surrender — to flee was impossible ; and, lower-
ing his lance, William overthrew his first assailant ;6 then
a second, sustaining the combat with the aid of his
companions, till a rescue was made. First in the
pursuit, he took seven of the party prisoners, leading
them in triumph to the camp, where king Henry met
him at the head of 300 of his bravest knights, and was
seized, it is said,7 with a pang of jealousy, at hearing
the applause bestowed upon the young hero by the
feudatories of France. Nor was this feeling confined
to the breast of the monarch. It rankled in the mind
of the worsted earl, and influenced even parties nearer
to the duke's person, who, having regarded William
the Bastard as a compeer rather than a master, could
not witness his marked superiority without pain. To
such an extent was this mean and ungenerous spirit
carried, as to induce king Henry to negotiate a separate

6 " So rudely and with such force," says the Chronicler, " as to break
both his arm and his thigh ; leaving him at the duke's mercy, who does
not appear, even on this trying occasion, to have wreaked his vengeance
on the man's life."

7 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Walsingham ; Ord. Vit. ; W. Malms.

74 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

treaty with the earl, upon terms which, the latter was
glad to accept, without including the gallant ally who
had flown to his rescue, chastised the pride of his
dreaded enemy, and strengthened his throne. He had
once owed its possession to his father; he was now
indebted for it to the braver son. This transaction
alone suffices to stamp with infamy the conduct of
Henry. The mean and dastardly act of deserting his
benefactor, and consigning him to the vengeance of
his deadliest foe, at the head of a superior force,
presents one of those anomalies to be accounted for
only upon the ground of envy so bitter as to overpower
every nobler feeling of the human mind.

This separate treaty, which took place in the year
1048, placed William in a situation of extreme peril,
and naturally aroused his indignation against the base-
ness of the French monarch. Instead of reaping the
fruits due to his exertions in the permanent friendship
and gratitude of his ally, he found himself in an enemy's
country, constrained to retreat before him whom he
had just vanquished, not without the impending danger
of having the war transferred into his own dominions.
The jealous count, irritated at the thoughts of his sullied
fame, and eager to wipe off the stain in the eyes of all
Europe, was not a man to forego the advantages which
this act of royal treachery presented to him. He had
also, as he presumed, resources to enable him to carry
his vengeance into complete effect. Not only was he
now Lord of Anjou, but of the warlike county of
Bourges, part of Maine and Touraine, whence he had
driven the count Thibault ; as well as of Poitou itself,
of which he had also deprived its rightful heir. Nor-
mandy and France were the next objects of his warlike

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 75

ambition, which might, perhaps, have proved successful,
had not the duke bravely thrown himself into the
breach to rescue the dishonoured crown of France.

In this cruel emergency, to retreat in the best order
he could was the only expedient the young duke could
adopt ; and this he effected with consummate skill and
coolness.

On reaching the frontiers of Normandy, he had the
additional mortification to find that a spirit of disaffec-
tion, produced by the desertion and fomented by the
intrigues of the king, was again at work, while his fron-
tier towns were in a state of the utmost insubordination
and alarm. Before his prompt measures could restore
order, his redoubtable foe was upon his track, carried
Alen9on by assault, and became master of the fortress of
Domfront and a part of the district of Passages.

William was now compelled to fall back upon his cen-
tral city of Falaise, which he fortified, and made the
rallying point of his future operations. All his efforts
were bent to reinforce his army, so as to enable him to
meet the invader in the open field. No sooner had he
effected this object, than he suddenly appeared before
the castle of Domfront, to which he laid siege. Though
attacked in his march by a body of the enemy's horse,
he not only repulsed but pursued them up to the very
walls of the place. He then summoned the garrison to
surrender.8 It is stated that on this occasion he slew
with his own hand the leader of the enemy's squadron,
thus inspiring his followers with a confidence in his
valour and fortune, so requisite in the exigency of the
moment, when he was about to face with inferior force an

8 Duchesne ; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouv. Hist. ; Ord. Vit. ; Wace ; W.
of Malms.

76 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

experienced and veteran foe. That foe was in full march
to raise the siege ; a battle was imminent, under every
disadvantage to the Normans; but the good fortune of
William once more attended him, and succour came from
a quarter whence he could least have expected it.

It was at this juncture that the magnanimity and
clemency formerly shown to his insurgent barons met
with their just reward. That able and practised military
leader, Mel, eager to manifest his gratitude for the boon
of his forfeit life, marched with 5,000 followers upon
Angers, cut to pieces a considerable body of the earl's
troops, and carried alarm to the very gates of his capital.
For this signal service William restored to him his
dominion of the Cotentin, effected a junction with
him, and hastened to surprise his adversary before he
recovered from the blow. These events so completely dis-
concerted the earl's plans, that we are told9 he no longer
displayed the same judgment and decision, and that in
his subsequent acts he appeared to be rather a reckless
desperado than a leader of consummate skill.

William, still pressing the siege, now despatched
an envoy to his rival, to acquaint him that, if he
felt disposed to relieve the place, he would find him
ready to receive him at the gates. The young knight,
Montgomery, was conducted into the lord of Anjou's
presence, and reported the duke's message word for
word. "You will inform William the Bastard," was
the count's reply, " that he shall see me at to-morrow's
dawn upon my white charger, ready to do battle, and
that I will enter the gates of Domfront in spite of him.
That he may the better know me, I shall carry a gold

9 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Ord. Vit. ; Walsingham ; Duchesne ; Chron.
de Nor. ; Vie du Due Guilleaume ; Prevost.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 77

crown-piece, without any other device, upon my helmet."
" Before that time, mypord," replied Montgomery, "you
will have a visit here from the duke, mounted on his
good Bayard, showing a crown of gueules, and at the
end of his lance a broidered scarf, to wipe away your
tears." With these words the gentle knight and his
companions returned to the duke, and gave him an
exact account of their mission.

Expectation of some^bold feats was now rife through-
out both armies; but before the earl had drawn out
his troops, came the same envoy bearing a false report
that the duke was master of Domfront. Geoffrey
Martel retired, and with this event, and the subsequent
fall of the fortress, terminated the great soldier's inva-
sion of Normandy.

Such was the result of his threats that he would
chastise the young duke's presumption, and hurl him
from the ducal dominion he had usurped. Trembling
for the safety of his own capital, he now fell back upon
Ambieres, while the duke having sent the enterprising
Niel in pursuit, planted his victorious banners upon the
towers of Domfront.

Exasperated at this successful stratagem, Martel
sought to retaliate by a well-laid ambuscade in a wood,
close to which William was about to pass upon his route
to rejoin the Count du Cotentin. On this occasion he
was nearly successful, the duke having been completely
surprised. This must have been attended with the
most disastrous results, had not the duke's bravery
and presence of mind foiled the happy manoeuvre of
his enemy. He exposed his person to all risks ; some
of his best knights were already extended in the dust ;
his numbers were rapidly thinning, and his veteran

78 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Normans wavered. Perceiving them at length about
to give way, he charged into the thick of the enemy,
while his eyes flashed fire, exclaiming, te If you love me
not, Normans, yet for shame follow me; for shame
stand by me ; for shame let not any at home hear it
said that you ran, and left me fighting alone \" It
was impossible that a leader, who could thus speak and
act, should have soldiers unworthy of him ; they turned
and charged once more, and the battle was restored.
Each chief displayed the utmost resources that his skill
or courage suggested; but the youthful impetuosity
and strength of William prevailed. At one moment
he penetrated through the enemy's ranks to the spot
where Martel fought, who had a narrow escape, it
seems, from the deadly lance of his rival.1 In the
encounter, the bold Geoffrey had a piece of his ear
carried away along with his plume and boasted device.2
Finally, becoming master of Ambieres in Maine, the
duke resolved to erect a fortress at once, to keep in
check his powerful rival, and to overawe the surround-
ing territory. Geoffrey of Mayenne, who held his
county as a fief from the Earl of Anjou, appealed to him
as his lord for protection against the duke's design.3

1 Vie du Due Guilleauine le Conquerant : Nouveaux Details sur Guil-
leaume de Normandie ; Hist, de Nor. ; Wace ; Walsingham ; Ypodigma ;
Thierry : W. Malms. ; Ord. Vit. ; Sismondi ; W. Pict. ; Henderson.

2 The battle is very naively related by one of the old Chroniclers,
who, after this specimen of the Duke's skill in ear-slitting, very naturally
infers " that the count declined any more returning to the charge."

3 By this it appears that the duties of a lord and his vassal, or feudal
tenant, were reciprocal, and that as the vassal was to forfeit his fiefs if he
did not attend his lord in the wars, according to the condition of his
tenure, so the lord was to forfeit his sovereignty over the fief if he did
not defend his tenant when unjustly attacked. And accordingly we meet
with frequent instances, in these times, of vassals throwing off their

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 79

He represented, that, if carried into execution, it would
expose the country round the city of Mayenne to be
invaded and plundered by the Normans at their
pleasure. The answer, of Geoffrey Martel to this
application was : " I will give you leave to reject me
for your upper lord for the future, as being a base and
spiritless protector of my dependents, if I let this
encroachment be made on your territory, without doing
all I can to prevent it." The duke, however, persevered ;
and, having succeeded in his object, placed a Norman
garrison in the fortress. The Earl of Anjou, assisted
by his lord, William, Earl of Poitou, and Eudo, Earl4 of
Brittany, then laid siege to it with a numerous force,
but without success ; and afterwards, on the approach
of William with an army of Normans, they abandoned
the siege with precipitation, and returned home.
Geoffrey, the reigning prince, who had held the city
and territory of Mayenne from the Earl of Anjou, being
unable to contend with the Norman power, was com-
pelled to transfer his homage to duke William, who

allegiance to their lords on this account, and transferring their homage
or dependence to other princes more able and willing to protect them.
The result of this very attempt of William to build a castle at Ambieres
was a change of the sovereignty of the city and territory of Mayenne. —
W. Pict. ; Gesta Gal. ; Duces &c., apud Mazeres.

4 The several titles of count, or earl, marquis, and duke, were known
as distinct appellations even in this early age ; though nobles invested
with the higher titles are often called earls or counts. But though the
inferior rank is frequently assigned to those who bore higher honours, yet
they whose proper title was comes were never called duke or marquis-
Thus the great man who is the subject of this history, was often called
Comes Normannice, and Baldwin, Marquis of Flanders, is called Comes
Flandrensis. But a subordinate earl— as the Earl of Arques, in Nor-
mandy, Comes Arceiisis, or the Earl of Ponthieu, Comes Pontivi—is
never called dux. — Hist. Ang. apud Mazeres, p. 49.

80 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

thus added a new and important frontier to his own
dominions.

The duke next directed his arms against Alen9on,
still in possession of the enemy. During his march he
was again intercepted by his artful adversary. He was
not however taken by surprise; and the ambuscade
found him posted at the head of his best troops ready
to receive them. The enemy fled, and William pursued
with so much ardour that he came up with their leader,
attempting to cover the retreat, unhorsed him in sight
of the fortress, and was near entering the gates of the
town with the fugitives.5

After closely inspecting its strength, the duke, we
are told, raised three bastillons so as completely to
beleaguer the castle. A strong body of the earl's
vassals were encamped upon the banks of the Sarthe
and marched to its relief. But the Normans, having
occupied the opposite side of the river,, took up a posi-
tion which they covered with strong breastworks, so
near that both parties were in sight of each other.

The men of Anjou and its vicinity seem to have
been as famous for their love of wit and repartee as for
their old feudal lore; and amused themselves with
taunting the Normans with their bitter gibes, in which
they far excelled them, though less accomplished, per-

5 Among other names of men of note, recorded by the Chroniclers as
having been present with William in this campaign, we find many that
are still to be met with in the modern baronage of Great Britain. We
may instance Roger de Montgomery and William Fitzosborne, then
young men distinguished for their valour, who afterwards accompanied
the duke into England, and obtained large estates there. There were
also Robert de Beaumont, the Count d'Aumale, Amauri de Flavacour,
whose high fortune, like their exploits, seemed to become hereditary, and
to be handed down as heirlooms to their noble descendants.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 81

haps, in the sterner art of war. The most provoking
challenges and biting sobriquets were then in fashion.
The southern trouveurs and gleemen had an abundant
store of these, and when "in the vein" spared not with
their ribald wit the greatest dignitaries, whether princes,
prelates, or popes.

No wonder that in such circumstances they should,
unluckily for themselves, fix upon the duke's birth as a
happy subject for their satiric art. They discharged
their gall-dipped arrows with so true an aim as to give
the most exquisite pain to the haughty Normans, who
could not bear the insulting jests launched against
their favourite leader, without a burning desire of re-
venge. Less polished and experienced in these satiric
tournaments, a dangerous exercise of the rising school
of the e( trouveurs/' they by 110 means tolerated the
laws of lampooning as a part of the gaie science. But
the besieged were little aware that their warlike lord
had just suffered a defeat, while they were indul-
ging in their favourite sport. At the sight of the duke,
their derision burst out in the cry of la pel, la pel, a la
pel, at the same time exhibiting from the walls skins
and leather jerkins, and calling out for the Norman
tanners. This coarse allusion to the duke's mother,
and to the trade of Falaise, was bitterly resented. By
us at this period these apparently harmless sallies may
be thought worthy only of contempt, but they were
then far from being despicable, on account of the
influence they exercised over public opinion, as well
personal as political.

Among the institutions of that day, the Courts of
Love, as they were termed, were also schools of roman-
tic adventure and poetic satire, from which emanated the

VOL. i. G

S3 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

minstrel's songs, and the trouveur's tales of love and
war. Kings were known to pique themselves upon
being enrolled members of these courts of honour,, the
arena in which public characters were made the theme
of praise or reproach. Monarchs themselves became
adepts in wielding diatribes as well as their swords; and
no wonder that William, who had resented reflections
upon his birth when yet a boy, should feel incensed at
these repeated efforts to excite disaffection and contempt
for his person in the eyes of his legitimate contempora-
ries and his own vassals. That he was greatly irritated
on this occasion, his cruelty, so much at variance with
his former magnanimity, sufficiently proves, though the
degree of provocation can form no excuse for his con-
duct. Having in one of the assaults become master of
the suburbs, he is said to have cut off the hands and
feet of his prisoners, which were thrown over the walls,
with an intimation that the same fate was reserved for
the whole garrison, if they did not surrender. He also
set fire to the town at different points, and attempted to
carry it by assault. These demonstrations were effec-
tual ; and the stronghold of Alen9on was given up to
the exasperated duke.

The Earl of Anjou, despairing of being able longer to
oppose so fortunate an adversary, was glad to listen to
the terms proposed by William, which, though greatly
to his advantage, were not dishonourable to his gallant
but unfortunate rival.

On his return to Rouen in 1051, the duke summoned
a council of his great barons and prelates, and, in the
presence of the subordinate authorities, received the
renewal of their oaths of fealty. Having next called a
grand assemblage of his knights and vassals, with the

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 83

veteran troops who had attended him in his successful
campaigns, he reviewed and harangued them ; and after-
wards distributed among them those honours and pro-
motions which, by their good conduct, he said, they had
so well merited. They were then entertained at a
splendid banquet in the capital; and nothing delighted
the duke more than to apportion rewards with his own
hands, a custom which he retained at the great military
assemblies, summoned periodically, when he became
King of England. At all these councils and assemblies
he now declared his intention of proceeding upon a visit
to his relative and ally, king Edward, at the English
court. Some of the contemporary chroniclers and
bardic historians of that day agree in the assertion that,
on a previous visit made by Robert, his father, the
English monarch promised that if he died without issue
he would, by his will, appoint William his heir; and the
authority of a testament was great in that age, says
Hume, even where the succession of a kingdom was con-
cerned. This step of the son may have been intended
to remind the king of such an engagement, and to
ingratiate himself perhaps into the favour of his father's
friends and that of the people. §ome such motives
of interest, it is most probable, led to this special act of
courtesy at this period, on the part of William.

It must have been in the year 1051 when the duke
paid this visit to his devout relative, and it appears that
he was most hospitably and magnificently entertained
by him. It is supposed that it was the only time he was
in England previously to the grand invasion.6 With
regard to the alleged claim on the crown, Ingulphus
expressly declares that, during his sojourn at the court,

6 P. Pict. ; Ingulphus ; Lord Lyttleton, Life of Heiiry II.
G 2

84 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

no mention was made on either side of duke Wil-
liam's succeeding to it on the demise of the Saxon
monarch. Edward was not unmindful, however, of the
days of adversity/ which he had spent in Normandy,
and, besides presents of hawks and hounds, in which he
knew the duke took great delight, he gave him nume-
rous other tokens of his high regard. The exile of earl
Godwin and his sons,8 though they had been received at
the courts of Flanders and Normandy, was undoubtedly
favourable to the influence, if not to the ulterior views
of the duke at this period. As he had appointed a
council of regency to act during his absence, composed
of De Beaumont and some of his stanchest adherents,
he was under no apprehensions of domestic troubles,
and had time to make himself acquainted with the
Anglo-Saxon customs and manners, as well as with the
different parties and factions that prevailed under the
weak but pacific reign of the Confessor. The last of
the Saxon and Danish kings, he repeatedly testified
the gratitude he had never ceased to feel towards the
duke's father for the protection afforded him in his exile.
Nor was the admiration due to the young prince's ex-
ploits less publicly, displayed, though the Normans
generally were viewed with extreme jealousy, both by
the nobles and by the people.

They were reminded, doubtless, by the king and
other friends of the politic duke, that Emma, the mother
of their sovereign, when driven by adverse fortune to

7 Higden Polycronicon ; Wace ; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de
Nor. ; Walsingham ; Polydore Virgil.

• William's visit was not long before archbishop Robert's banishment,
so that the message he is said to have carried to the duke, concerning
Edward's donation must have been soon after this period, between the
visit and the exile. — Haddon MS., with authorities.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 85

seek a foreign asylum in 1013, was received and pro-
tected at the court of Normandy. As if to promote
some ulterior views likewise, the causes of this event
were retraced, by showing how, on the death of Canute,
his dominions were divided among his three sons, Swein
being made king of Norway, Harold Harefoot, of Eng-
land, and Hardicanute, the issue of his second marriage
with Emma, becoming king of Denmark; and that,
notwithstanding the efforts made by duke Robert in
the cause of the royal fugitives, they were subsequently,
in the year 1035, dispossessed and deprived of their
family inheritance. Again, when the sons of Ethelred,
Alfred and Edward, during William's minority, accepted
the royal invitation from England, and with a numerous
retinue repaired to their mother Emma at Winchester,
they became the objects of earl Godwin's deadly hatred.
The barbarities of which he was guilty in conjunction
with Harold Harefoot, and his overweening ambition,
led to a state of things the most disastrous for the
Anglo-Saxon succession. Alfred was put to death; but
Emma and her son Edward escaping, as we have related,
into Normandy, were treated by duke Robert with the
greatest kindness and consideration ; and he even com-
pelled Canute to enter into terms with them ; although
these were afterwards broken.

The reign of Harold Harefoot, who died in 1039, was
a brief one. He was succeeded by Hardicanute, who,
upon being informed of the barbarous death inflicted on
his half-brother Alfred, ordered the body of the royal
assassin to be disinterred, and thrown into the Thames.

From the period of king Canute's decease, there
sprang up two powerful rival interests, to the ultimate
exclusion of the reigning dynasty in the person of

86 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Edgar Atheling. These were the faction of earl God-
win, nearly connected by marriage with two former
monarchs, and whose still closer relation to Edward
gave him immense influence in the country, and the no
less potent but more distant ascendancy of the Norman
duke.9 Both had been instrumental in the succession
of Edward to the throne; but the Normans supplied
him with ships and soldiers, when he was invited by
general consent of the nation to take possession of the
crown. The monarch was induced to marry earl God-
win's daughter, Editha, with whom however he refused
to associate, though he could not, with the same ease,
throw off the yoke of her haughty father. At length he
succeeded also in that object ; and duke William having
vanquished all his domestic foes, the king was eager to
avail himself of his rising power to repress the soaring
pride of Godwin and his sons. They speedily returned
however, became masters of the government, and dic-
tated both to the country and to the court.1 But they
could not eradicate king Edward's early prepossessions
in favour of Normandy,2 or obliterate his gratitude for
the generous efforts made by duke Robert and his son,
to restore him to his ancestral throne.

It is not surprising, therefore, that he should do all iri
his power to render his young relative's reception in
London both as welcome and as brilliant as possible.

9 Perpetual feuds and animosities prevailed between earl Godwin and
the English, and those Normans whom king Edward had advanced to-
preferment. They were looked upon by the English nobility with a very
angry eye ; this was the chief cause that the king banished earl Godwin
and his sons. — Malms. 45, 46 ; Haddon MS.

1 Hume ; Henry ; Lingard ; Mackintosh, Hist, of England.

2 Ingulphus ; Wace ; W. Malms. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hi
de Nor. ; Vestigia Ang. ; Monasticon.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 87

That it roused the jealousy of earl Godwin and his
partisans was very evident,, by the secret intrigues and
open tumults 3 which they sought to excite, against the
friends and guests of their sovereign. But they were
not at this time successful; and Edward omitted no
occasion of testifying his warm admiration, as well as
his affection and respect, for his Norman cousin.4 Com-
plimenting him in public upon his bold achievements,
he took delight in holding them up to the imitation of
his nobles, and directing towards them the popular
applause, to the infinite chagrin of the proud earl and
his adherents ; the latter of whom scarcely refrained
from proceeding to acts of violence against the young
duke. It was perhaps only his high personal character
and fearless demeanour that protected him. Though
only in his twenty-eighth year, he inspired that sort of

3 Several instances had already occurred. As Eustace, Earl of Bou-
logne, the king's brother-in-law, passed through Canterbury on his way
home, there happened an unlucky fray between his retinue and the
citizens, and several persons were slain. Eustace hastened back to com-
plain to the king, who -took his part, and gave orders for the citizens to
be severely punished, and without being heard. Godwin, on the other
side, in whose earldom this happened, espoused the cause of his country-
men, and opposed this command as unjust and illegal, moving that they
might have a fair trial. The king was so vehemently incensed against
him and his sons, that he procured the banishment of these stout opposers
of arbitrary sway, under pretence of designs against his honour, crown,
and dignity.

Not long afterwards duke William came into England. — Haddon
MS., B. M..

4 It is stated that, among other modes of testifying his regard, he
accompanied his guest in a progress through the country, to show him
the principal cities and castles of his kingdom. This was, doubtless
highly gratifying to a warlike character like William, and he appears to
have made a good use of the opportunity, and to have noted well the best
sites for his future structures, to enslave the people. — W. of Malms. ;
Tyrrel, Hist, of Eng.

88 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

respect mixed with awe, which, in the voice, the eye, and
whole demeanour of the man, daunts the purpose of the
assassin. There was a dignity partaking of grandeur
in his spirit, a stern rebuking genius in his look, which
few had heart to encounter, much less to defy ; a power
similar to that from which his intended executioner
recoiled at the sight of Marius ; and, though some Nor-
mans had previously been massacred in England, like
the Danes, when other means failed, the future Con-
queror walked unscathed amidst fiery glances and half-
drawn weapons, ready at the beck of the ambitious
aspirant to the government of the country to establish
his power in blood.

This inveterate hostility was chiefly confined to earl
Godwin's faction. William's prudence, fearless bearing,
and animated conversation, not untinged with enthu-
siasm and eloquence, could not fail at that period to
awaken interest and conciliate regard. The extent of
his information, his singular energy and powers of mind,
far above the common standard, gave a zest to his
occasional wit, and to his poetic repartees, such as he had
displayed towards his rivals of France and Anjou. Like
all great minds, he evinced nothing which partook of
mean envy or jealousy; and he held all little arts,
malice, or treachery, in contempt.5 Ever boldly assert-
ing his pretensions, he aimed directly at the objects he
had in view.

Such is the portrait of William of Normandy at the
period when, flushed with youth and conquest, he first
visited the court of England. Nor is it improbable
that, recommended by so many extraordinary qualities,
by his near relationship, and by his claims on Edward's

5 Walsingham j W. Malms, j W. Pict. j Hist, de Nor. j Cliron. de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 89

gratitude/ he received some intimation from that
monarch in confirmation of the previous understanding
with duke Robert/ of his intention, with the consent of
the nobles and the people, to appoint him his successor
to the English crown. But no testamentary evidence
of such intention having been handed down, it is one of
those questions that may still continue to occupy the
industry of research and ingenuity of reasoning beyond
the range of historical facts. The king was childless,
and duke William had fair grounds on which to base
his hopes, from the monastic mode of life to which the
pious monarch strictly adhered, subsequently to the
period of his former residence at Jumieges. He had
taken a vow of chastity, and, in the true spirit of a
bigot, even incarcerated his consort in a monastery, after
the revolt of the earl her father, though she had not
afforded him any pretext for so harsh a measure by the
infringement of those vows for which he professed so
marked a veneration.

He relaxed, however, something of his sombre austerity
on occasion of the visit of the young Norman, who even
then enjoyed a military reputation second to that of
no prince in Europe. But, while partaking of the
king's hospitality, in the midst of a succession of
Saxon feasts and revelries, he was recalled by the
intrigues of one of those turbulent chiefs who ill
brooked the compulsory sway he had so recently esta-
blished over them. Buzaz, Count of Eu, a descendant of
Richard " Sans Peur," had raised the standard of revolt,
most probably at the instigation of William's English

6 W. Malms. ; Wace ; Walsingham ; Thierry ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ;
Chron. Sax. ; Mazeres ; Lingard ; Mackintosh.

7 Nouv. Hist, de Normandie.

90 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

enemies,, who left no means untried to remove him from
the vicinity of king Edward's court. 8

Hastening back to Normandy, William, with the
utmost expedition, entered the rebel count's territory,
took him prisoner in his own castle, and banished him.
Like so many other disaffected chieftains in different
countries, this bold insurgent joined the banners of the
free companies in Apulia, where, under the name of the
Count de Montreuil, he became distinguished in those
ferocious wars. He subsequently repaired to the French
court, and was presented by king Henry with the terri-
tory of Soissons — an act indicative of the lingering
hostility of the French monarch, who thus sought to
defeat duke William's object to rid himself of a trouble-
some if not a very formidable neighbour.

Shortly after his return from England, it appears
that William directed his thoughts to the consolida-
tion of the advantages he had acquired, and the
strengthening of his position, by forming a matrimonial
alliance. He was induced to adopt this politic resolu-
tion, we are informed, 9 at the express wish of his chief
"barons and vassals," seconded by the "notables"
of the now rising towns, who were naturally anxious
to guard against another disputed succession. It will
not be uninteresting to throw a retrospective glance on
some circumstances which preceded an event so im-
portant in its consequences to the English nation, in
connection with that form of government and those
free institutions which it obtained under some of his

8 Walsinghain ; Wace ; Chrou. Sax. ; Chron. de Nor. ; W. Malms. ;
Mazeres.

9 Duchesne ; Wace ; Walsinghain ; P. Pict. ; W. Malms. ; Nouv. Hist,
de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 91

heroic successors. Matilda of Flanders, daughter of
Baldwin V., Earl of Brittany, and descended on the
maternal side in a direct line from the great Alfred,
was the lady selected by William to adorn his rank,
give lustre to his power, and perpetuate his family
sway. She was beautiful and highly accomplished ; but
he had to surmount difficulties which few men less
ardent and persevering would have ventured to
encounter, from the decided dislike evinced towards
him by his fair cousin, and from the hostility of her
friends. Neither prince nor peasant, however cool and
stoical, could sustain with indifference a series of re-
buffs at once from the beloved object and from her rela-
tives. We are informed by the sympathising chroniclers,1
upon this occasion, that for nearly seven tedious years
he had to bear the brunt of their united neglect and
scorn, besides enduring the mortification of finding
his spurious birth advanced as a motive for declining
the proposed alliance. But not even the reports that
she had bestowed her affections on a handsome young
Saxon, sent as envoy from the English court, could
deter him from his pursuit. And here again, contrary
to all reasonable expectations, his happy star rose in the
ascendant, superior to every adverse influence. From
some unexplained cause, the bright-haired Saxon failed
to appreciate the high honour intended for him, and
made no due return of loyal love.

The enmity of numerous jealous rivals was as vainly
opposed to William's destined fortune, and the very
intrigues of her friends, and of corrupt agents at differ-
ent courts, seemed put in motion only to facilitate in

1 Wace ; St. Benoit ; Rob. of Gloucester ; Cliron. de Nor. ; Walsing-
ham ; Ypodigma.

92 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

the end tliat success at which, the young duke aimed.
He still pressed his suit, and held on undaunted, sur-
mounting by degrees all the difficulties which stood
between himself and his wished-for prize. Both after
he had married, and when he could add the title of
Conqueror to his name, he continued to sign himself
' ' William the Bastard " upon all important occasions,
without exhibiting the slightest repugnance to the title,
for he felt that, if not by birth and courtesy, he was
" illustrious " by his deeds.

Another impediment presented itself in the bulls of
the papal court, which forbade the union of relatives
within certain proscribed degrees. The lady Matilda
and her resolute suitor, being first cousins, were placed
in that predicament, but over this, as over all other
obstacles, his firmness ultimately prevailed.

Towards the end of the seven years — a tolerably fair
trial for one of William's vivacious temper — he began to
think it was almost time to cut the Gordian knot, and
is said to have had recourse to decided measures of a
kind little calculated to insure a lady's love, either in
ancient or in modern days. If we may rely upon contem-
porary records, the expedient he adopted was that of
holding parley with the cold and haughty beauty as she
returned from church, through the streets of her father's
capital,2 the then gay and bustling Bruges. Having
reproached her for her long-continued scorn and cruelty,
he seized her, we are told, and coolly rolled her in the
mud, to the no small injury of her trim and costly
attire. Then, after a few more striking proofs of his
regard, which she must have sensibly felt from such a

1 Ingerius Chron. ; Thierry, Anglo-Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ;
W. Malms. ; Walsingham ; Wace ; St. Benoit.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 93

hand, the lover rode away at full speed, leaving her to
account for this novel mode of courtship as best she
could.3

It is, however, only just to William's character, to
add that this very unedifying anecdote is of doubtful
authenticity; or, if not wholly apocryphal, it must have
been much exaggerated by the busy and scandal-loving
pens of its reporters, especially of Ingulphus. Yet we
are gravely informed that this singular mode of court-
ship was attended with the desired success. Convinced
for the first time of the violence, if not the delicacy, of
the duke's passion, the lady as well as her friends thought
it politic to regard his suit with a more favourable eye.
Whatever degree of credit may be attached to this
transaction, it appears that, within a short period from
the date assigned to it, the day was actually appointed
for the nuptials of the princely cousins.

The scene of the ensuing festivities is stated to have
been William's own castle of Augi, whither the bride
was conducted by the earl her father, who presented
her to her gratified lover, with rich and sumptuous gifts
becoming such a bridal. The ceremony took place in
presence of a numerous assemblage of Norman lords
and prelates, with "store of ladies bright" from the
surrounding states and cities, and was accompanied
with all the pomp and circumstance of baronial sway
which marked the dawn of the feudal era.4 Already

3 In that useful and elaborate work, IS Art de Verifier les Dates, we
meet with a rather different version of this strange exploit. William is
stated to have repaired in haste to Lisle, and there, forcing his way into
the chamber of the lady, dragged her by her tresses, inflicting a severe
chastisement, and even trampling her under his feet. — L'Art de Verifier
&c. T. xiii. p. 14, 15 ; Chron. de Nor. ; Vie du Due Guillaume.

4 Wace ; Roman de Rou ; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Histoire de
Nor. ; Sismondi ; Walsingham j St. Benoit.

94 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

9

were the gorgeous fictions and shows of the impassioned
East beginning to be transferred into Europe by aid of
the Moors, and those adventurous pilgrim knights of
different orders, among whom the bold ambitious
Normans held no inferior rank.

By this alliance, so magnificently celebrated with the
court of Flanders, then in high repute, William con-
solidated his power at a juncture when men's energies
were newly awakened. Amid the wisest and bravest
by whom he was surrounded, he was eager to approve
himself fearless and unrivalled in the field, if not the
most eminent among the able and accomplished states-
men of that eventful and enterprising age.

At the close of these nuptial festivities, sanctioned by
the presence of princes, and the envoys of several kings,
the duke, accompanied by his accomplished bride, made
a progress through his states, in order that she might
receive the homage of all his vassals : he subsequently
held his open court at Rouen.5

It was extremely unfortunate that at such a moment,
when all seemed to promise a happy and brilliant
future, a source of disquietude should spring up from
a quarter whence it could least have been expected.
The haughty archbishop, William's uncle, exasperated
at some fancied slight, proceeded without ceremony to
excommunicate the newly-wedded cousins upon the
plea of their too close consanguinity; an objection
which he might have discovered a little earlier. The
duchess Matilda, he now found out, was grand-daughter
to Eleanor, William's aunt, an offence which, in his
eyes, could only be expiated by instant separation, and
which subjected her to the dreaded ban against inces-

5 Wace ; Roman de Rou ; St. Benoit ; Nouvelle Histoire de Nor. ;
Vie du Due Guillaume ; Abbe Provost.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 95

tuous intercourse. He argued that, the daughter of
Richard the Good having married a Count of Flanders,
Baldwin le Barbu, William and Matilda, being direct
branches of this union, were cousins within the pro-
hibited degrees.

For some time William sought to appease the angry
prelate by contributions to the church ; but in vain he
founded charitable societies and erected new churches
for the edification of E/ouen, Caen, Bayeux, and Cher-
bourg. Threats were equally vain, and the duke had
at length recourse to a higher tribunal, in the shape of
an appeal to his Holiness of Home, and he found an
agent both able and willing to take upon himself the
management of so responsible and delicate a charge.

It is at this period that the name of the celebrated
Lanfranc first emerges into public notice. William
had sufficient judgment to discern his uncommon merit;
he was anxious to avail himself of his counsel, and
assured him that he felt the fullest confidence in his
skill and prudence, when entrusting to him the conduct
at the papal court of a cause in which both himself and
his consort were so deeply interested. He stated that
the motives of his refractory uncle were private pique
and malice, on account of the discomfiture of the earl,
his brother, and his (the duke's) own success ; that the
archbishop was, moreover, extremely incensed, because,
forsooth, the nuptials had been celebrated in the very
castle of his aspiring brother, whom this turbulent pre-
late had hoped to see enter Arques the conqueror of
his rightful prince and the betrayer of his country.

These representations, powerfully recommended by
the eloquence of Lanfranc, were completely successful.
Pope Victor, aware that a dissolution of William's

96 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

marriage would be the signal for new civil wars, and
endanger the influence of the papal see throughout
the Norman states, and anxious to oblige a prince who
evinced so much deference for his authority, hastened to
grant a full dispensation. It was accompanied with a
special proviso, at the suggestion probably of Lanfranc,
that William and his consort should each erect, in
addition to an hospital for a hundred poor, an abbey
for the religious of their respective sex, which being
done he would absolve them from all evil consequences
attaching to their imputed fault.

Never, perhaps, were two abbeys founded with more
zeal, than upon this occasion. The duchess Matilda
was more especially happy, in having a new opportunity
to indulge her favourite taste for architecture. Both
edifices were erected in the vicinity of Caen, that
founded by the duchess, for the reception of women,
being dedicated to the Holy Trinity ;6 the other, con-
sisting of the duke's expiatory offering, for the men,
was consecrated to St. Stephen, within the precincts
of which William had also the pleasure of raising a
royal palace,7 as a more modern and pleasant residence,
than the gloomy iron-visaged castle, for himself and
his lovely consort.

It is not surprising that the first abbot of St. Stephen
should have been the learned Lanfranc himself, before
only a simple Italian monk of Bee, who had brought
the delicate question of consanguinity to so happy a
conclusion. From that period we trace his rapid rise
to the highest honours; he became the confidential
counsellor of his prince, the future preceptor and minis-

6 Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor.

7 Ducarel ; Montfaucon ; Vestigia Ang. ; Monasticon.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 97

ter of his sons, and was, soon after the Conquest, dignified
with the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury.

The duke had little occasion to seek for grounds of
retaliation upon the prelatical relative who had thus
attempted to wound his peace, on a point where he was
so susceptible, from his long and ardent affection for his
consort. The strange and profligate conduct of Mauger
was at length carried to such a height, in his advancing
years, as to call for punishment and give his nephew
ample scope for administering the severity of discipline,8
without appearing at the same time to act a tyrannical
part. He permitted him to run his own course till he
had rendered himself amenable to the ecclesiastical laws.
The infatuated prelate, forgetful of his past fame and
wisdom, which had shed light even upon the path of the
young Conqueror,9 furnished abundant reasons for
applying the ducal power to arrest him in his wild
and reckless career. He lavished his revenues upon the
most worthless characters; kept the most licentious
and abandoned company ; converted the sacred vessels
into the means of inebriation ; dissipated the holy relics ;
and, finally, played such fantastic tricks as to call for
the interference of the State. In 1055,1 William sum-
moned a convocation of bishops at Lisieux, before whom
Mauger was accused of manifold crimes and misdemea-
nors, even to pilfering the consecrated vessels to supply
his extravagances. He was formally deposed from his
office, to which Maurilliers was chosen in his room.2

8 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; W. Malms. ; Tyrrell ; Rapin ; Kennett.

9 By the counsel he gave William to apply for aid to the king of
France ; an essential service, which probably rendered his nephew so
long tolerant of his errors and misconduct.

1 Sir H. Nicholas ; Chron. ; L'Art de Verifier les Dates.

2 Chron. de Nor. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. j W. Malms. ; Montfaucon ;
Rapin ; Henry ; Tyrrell j Kennett.

VOL. I. H

98 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Stripped of all his ill- worn splendour, it is reported that
he repaired to the isle of Guernsey, where he became
acquainted with a young woman named Gille, by whom
he had several children.3 Owing to his extreme eccen-
tricity, and the number of mischievous plots and intrigues
in which he was engaged, the people believed that he
possessed, or was possessed by, a familiar demon, who
called himself " Thouret," and who enabled him to pre-
dict future events.

William, it thus appears, exhibited as much resolution
in repressing the excesses and curbing the power of his
great prelates as he had already done in subduing his
feudal barons. He was now anxious to delegate his
authority to hands which might strengthen his govern-
ment, and serve to promote his views of aggrandisement
and his love of sway. His maternal uncle, Odo, was a
man of singular energy and talent, notwithstanding all
his prelatic vices, rapacity and oppression ; and he soon
became instrumental in promoting William's designs.
On the death of Raoul de Dol, bishop of Bayeux, he was
appointed by the Council to that see, and in the dis-
charge of its duties displayed his public spirit, his
patronage of art and learning, and especially his love of
architecture, with splendid specimens of which he orna-
mented his diocese, to the no small delight and admira-
tion of the duchess Matilda and her beloved consort.

But, while peacefully engaged in adorning no less than
consolidating his ducal government, William was roused
to action by new alarms which threatened him on the
side of France. The extension of the Norman territory

3 One of his illegitimate sons became a great soldier, known as Michael
de Bayeux ; joined the Normans hi Italy ; attended the prince of An-
tioch in his grand expedition ; and distinguished himself in the holy
vrars. His other sons also rose to eminence.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 99

at the expense of Anjou, the close alliance with England
and other powers, and, more than all, his intimate
connexion with the reigning family of Flanders, gave
extreme umbrage to the French monarch. He regarded
with just fears a vassal, who, within so brief a period,
had made such rapid strides to empire. His nobles, still
smarting under the disgrace sustained at Arques, and
eager to retrieve their reputation, while they deprecated
the former wars, now described the Normans in the
most revolting colours, as a nation of pirates, intent
only upon plunder, addicted to riot and excess of every
kind, without excepting even their priests. Plans were
proposed to restrain their ambition by exciting the
enmity of other states; a sufficient proof how much
they were feared. Henry was advised to take advan-
tage of the first crisis, and, by striking a decisive blow,
to annex the Norman dukedom to the French crown.
Flattered with the idea, that weak monarch, forgetting
the repeated disasters and mortifications which he had
suffered,4 hoped to achieve an exploit reserved for one
of his successors.

France once more rang from end to end with the
alarum of war. All aids were put into requisition for
the invasion of Normandy. The various powers in
alliance with the French court were invited by fresh
offers to join in the undertaking ; and Henry set forward
at the head of a numerous army, leaving a strong reserve
and reinforcements to follow. He disguised his real

4 In 1053, Henry supplied William, count of Arques, with a large
force ; but, on learning that he was defeated by the duke, the king made
a hasty retreat. In 1054 was fought the battle of Val de Dunes, in which
king Henry's brother was defeated by Roger de Mortimer and Rober$
count d'Eu. Again the king retired on the approach of the Normans,—
Ducarel ; Nor. Antiq. fol. i.

H 2

100 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

object, under the plea of restoring to the Earl of Anjou
the territories of which William had unjustly deprived
him; and the discomfited Martel was not slow in re-
assembling his forces at Mantes, to join the French
crusade against his envied rival.

William,, meanwhile, was not idle ; nor was he again
taken by surprise. Too much of a statesman to allow
a grand confederacy, intended to hurl him from his
dukedom and destroy him by one great effort, to reach
maturity, he had already marshalled two powerful hosts
composed of veteran soldiers, vassals, and free bands,
drawn to his banners by the fame of his previous vic-
tories. Besides these, he had a large body of knights
and barons, especially of the young nobility, whom he
had invited from Italy. At the head of one force he
suddenly appeared before Evreux, to oppose the king ;
the other he intrusted to his relative, the Count d'Eu,5
with instructions to occupy the district of Caux, before

5 Some chroniclers and historians have expressed doubts with regard
to the identity of this relation of duke William — was he his half-brother,
another of Arlette's sons, or the famous Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who in
his temporal capacity now bore that name ? He often exchanged the
crozier for the sword, and fought like a gallant chief of the church mili-
tant for his warlike nephew. This is the more probable, from the fact
that, at the battle of Hastings, he acted as the duke's aide-de-camp, and
performed prodigies of valour. He outshone all the warlike prelates of
his age, and at the memorable battle of empires, the Pharsalia of modern
times, contributed to turn the fortune of the day. Some other writers
contend that this count d'Eu was a younger half-brother of William,
named Robert, who served under the famous Roger de Mortimer, by
whom he was accompanied in this splendid campaign, being considered by
William too young to be intrusted with the chief command. It is re-
corded, to the honour of William, that he uniformly promoted his poorer
relatives by the mother's side, while he repressed the pride of his paternal
uncles, cousins, and minor connexions to an unlimited extent. — Duchesne ;
Chron de Nor. ; W. Malms. ; W. Pict. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Walsing-
ham ; Sismondi ; Thierry.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 101

the arrival of the French monarch's brother, earl Eude.
This invasion was a fresh signal for the disaffected to
join the French standard; men who, descended from
the first dukes of Normandy, could, if foiled, still pursue,
like Buzaz and Warling, their adventures with Guiscard
and his freebooters of the South. It was well for these
turbulent spirits that they had such a resource, as they
proved to be completely overmatched by the superior
energy infused by William into the breasts of his adhe-
rents. It was in this spirited campaign that the names
of the counts de Longueville, of Guiffard, of Gurnay, and
De Crespin, became distinguished like those of their
subsequently famous descendants in the annals of our
Anglo-Norman houses. These chiefs made gallant
head against the French king's brother, while the duke
pushed his foraging parties close to the walls of Mantes,
carrying off everything that could favour the progress
of the enemy, and threatening his communication on
the side of the Seine.

Earl Eude, Henry's general, was meanwhile rest-
ing supinely in the rich abundant district around
Lyons; or, in the words of the Norman chronicle,
" feeding upon the fat of the land." At Mor timer- sur-
Andelle, he found ample forage of all kinds, and in the
idea that William was yet far distant, at Evreux, con-
tinued to enjoy his pleasant position, and made " grand
cheer." Little did he dream that he was within a single
day's march of the active Guiffard. That able leader
surprised and routed him with immense slaughter, took
all his baggage and booty, besides a number of noble
prisoners, and left 10,000 dead upon the field of battle.

Upon receiving tidings of this signal victory, William,
still burning with resentment at the treachery of the

102 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

French king, could not forbear indulging his satiric
vein at his old ally's expense. Well assured that Henry
would not venture beyond the walls of Mantes, he sent
him the following alarming verses, copies of which were
distributed about the gates to acquaint him with the
extent of the disaster. They are curious, as exhibiting
a solitary specimen of his powers of composition on the
spur of the moment ; happy if he had always contented
himself with this kind of political vengeance upon the
head of a fallen adversary.

« Rdveillez vous, et vous levez,
Guerriers qui trop dormi avez ;
Allez bientot voir vos amis
Que les Normands ont a mort mis
Entre Ecouys et Mortimer ;
La vous convient les inhumer."
Awake, arouse from sluggard sleep,
Bold warriors, who no vigils keep !
Ye doze too long ; your friends await,
In bloody shroud, your aid too late.
All done to death by mortal spear
Between Ecouys and Mortimer.
Go, haste to deck their funeral bier,
Who fell while you were slumbering here.

Norman historians give us a lively picture of Henry 's
terror, and the consternation which seized his army,
upon receiving this announcement of the misfortune
which had befallen him. The ironical verses were
repeated with bitter taunts by his lords and vassals,
as well as by the inhabitants. The king was among the
first to set the example of flight, and the town resem-
bled a place taken by storm, in the eagerness of his
troops to evacuate it. Count Eude, his brother, had
owed his safety only to the fleetness of his steed ;6 and,

. 6 Other princes and nobles were not so fortunate ; and among Wil-

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 103

joining the abject monarch, retreated by forced marches,
harassed by William, who soon made ample reprisals
upon the dominions of his enemy. He recovered the
territories formerly occupied by Henry; laid siege to
the fortress of Tillieres, the boundary he had so long
coveted, and to preserve which he now erected the
new castle of Breteuil.

Alarmed for his own dominions, the panic-stricken
monarch offered other advantages if the duke would
advance no farther. Sensible of the sound military
policy of presenting a golden bridge to a powerful
enemy in retreat, William resolved not to push his good
fortune too far, and was secretly rejoiced to listen to
the king's terms. A peace was concluded ; it was ratified
in 1059, and ensured to him enlarged territories, and
the reputation of a prudent statesman as well as of a
successful soldier.

Nor was the decided success of this campaign, so
brilliant a triumph over the united force of France and
its allies, of less importance to his future undertakings.
Without the fame and advantages which it conferred
upon him in the eyes of European princes, it is hardly
probable that he would have ventured to contest the
sovereignty of England with the warlike and expe-
rienced Harold. As it was, his two most powerful
neighbours now lay at his mercy, and he took advan-
tage of this commanding position to introduce an
express stipulation into the ensuing treaty, that neither
should afford aid to the other in bearing arms against
him.

liam's prisoners was Guy, count de Ponthieu, one of the duke's invete-
rate adversaries, who was conducted with others a prisoner to the fortress
of Caen, where he remained upwards of two years. — Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ;
Chron. de Nor. ; Wace ; Walsingham.

104- WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Thus, instead of urging them to extremities,, William
preferred to convert them, as far as possible, into allies,
and to avail himself of their resources for his own
aggrandisement in some future undertaking. From this
period he assumed the marked influence over them and
other neighbouring princes which enabled him to lay
the foundations of that greatness to which he subse-
quently rose. His plans were deliberately formed, well
matured, and, as such, calculated to ensure success and
to maintain what he had won. His profound policy and
moderation in triumph made him a conqueror in its true
sense ; and he merited the title. Few possessed a greater
mastery over their passions; few knew better how to
mask their real views, or to sacrifice present advantages
for the attainment of some greater ulterior object.

It was this lofty self-control which, in the early part
of his career, gave William that remarkable power of
adapting his conduct to circumstances, of arriving at the
results of deliberate judgment upon the spur of occasion,
and of always deciding " for the best " with promptness
and with vigour. He could dissemble with every appear-
ance of frankness and good faith, and, while actuated by
no generous motives, display a clemency and magnani-
mity to which, judging from his subsequent actions, his
heart appears to have been a stranger. Doubtless such
motives of policy now induced him to give up his numer-
ous prisoners, and, with few exceptions, without ransom,
stipulating only that those of higher rank should defray
the charges of their subsistence.7

7 We are informed by the careful chronicler of the duke's conduct
upon this occasion, that the captive earls each paid ten florins per diem,
the barons six, the knights four, and the squires only two. This respec-
tive ratio conveys no bad idea of their relative importance and mode of

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 105

It is a singular coincidence that, at the close of this
brilliant campaign, and the subsequent peace with
France, William stood in precisely the same position with
regard to the Earl of Anjou as that lord occupied when
he had entered into a separate treaty with Henry at his
great rival's expense. But the duke was too prudent to
follow the example set him by Martel, of indulging his
anger and violence to the jeopardy of his own interests.
He pursued his usual enlightened policy, making the
victory of Mortimer only another stepping-stone to his
vaulting ambition. He held out the hand of amity to
his most bitter and malignant foe ; and finally succeeded
in humbling him into the subordinate rank of one of
his great vassals, and the heir of the redoubtable earl
commanded a division at the battle of Hastings.

The death of the Count de Maine, who left William
his heir, about this period, threatened to counteract
this adroit policy, by reviving his old rival's claims.
Geoffrey Martel had deprived count Herbert of a large
portion of his territory after the betrothal of that lord's
daughter to the duke's eldest son, Kobert, being ex-
asperated at the transfer of allegiance from Anjou to
Normandy, and at his own exclusion from any share in
the succession. At this juncture, William seized upon
the capital and reinforced it with a strong Norman
garrison. The entire country submitted, and, having
received the homage of the nobles and the people,8
William left Mans and his newly acquired territory
without having once drawn the sword, thanks to the

living, as well as the position which they occupied in the social scale of
their day.

8 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; W. of Malms. ; W. Pict. ; Chron. de Nov. ;
Wace ; Walsingham.

106 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

promptness and decision of his movements,9 It was in
vain that earl Walter, another aspirant to the earldom,
called upon Geoffrey, the nephew of the famous Geoffrey
Martel, who no longer appeared in the field, to do
him justice as his new lord paramount. The earl was
himself a vassal, and after some feeble efforts, Walter,
compelled to surrender the entire territory to the duke,
resigned all his pretensions, and on that condition was
received into favour, and permitted to retain his former
hereditary possessions.

Nearly at the same period, (1063-4), the duke had
to encounter another and more troublesome domestic foe
in the person of Gauthier, count de Vexin. Instigated
by the Counts de Mayence^and Hubert de St. Luzanne,
to question William's title, he was further abetted by
the new count of Anjou. Falsifying his oath of fealty,
Anjou at length placed himself at the head of the con-
spirators,1 rejoiced to measure his strength in the open
field with his great predecessor's most formidable enemy.
Fortune for a time seemed to smile upon his desperate
effort ; he succeeded in reoccupying Mans, and boldly
marched upon Ambrieres, which had been hastily gar-
risoned by William Fitzosborne. The death of Mar-
garet, princess of Maine, affianced to prince Robert,
proved not less injurious to the interest of the duke,
but it could not daunt him, nor dim the lustre of
that star which threw light upon his path to higher
fortunes.

He met and routed his younger rival of Anjou as he
had before done his more celebrated uncle. Having

k 9 W. Pict. ; Gest. Gal. Duels, &c. ; W. of Malms. ; Hist, de Nor.

' * W. of Malms. ; Chron. de Nor, ; W. Pict. ; Mazeres ; Thierry j

Sismondi.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 107

beaten the confederated factions in several conflicts, he
drove them before him, and recovered the whole of
Maine with its capital. He demolished its fortifications,
disarmed the insurgents, and returned in triumph to
pursue his ulterior object of concentrating his military
strength and extending his resources. This he effected
by fostering commercial enterprise and the useful arts
in the sea-port towns, and in the rich agricultural dis-
tricts of central Normandy.

Never was the wisdom of such measures in the duke's
actual circumstances more strikingly manifested than at
that period. Scarcely had he succeeded in organising
a more powerful and imposing force, than another
daring and combined attempt was made by young
Martel, aided by numbers, jealous like himself of the
duke's continued good fortune, and eager to deprive him
of the fruits of his hard- won honours.2 Some contem-
porary writers 3 declare that the young earl was at the
head of one hundred thousand men, a force which he must
have been fortunate or able indeed to assemble, after so
recent a discomfiture by Ms powerful enemy. The
numbers are doubtless greatly exaggerated, or they
must have given William more serious trouble than
they appear to have done. It was intended that king
Henry should join the new confederacy ; but, as if to
give a fresh impulse, as he had ever done, to William's

2 In 1059 or 1060, it is asserted, but without much foundation, that
the duke was present at the coronation of his lord paramount, Philip I.,
attended by a magnificent retinue, as the head of the great vassals of
the French crown. In 1062, it is added, he received Harold at his
court. In 1068, Alfonso, the king of Castile, sent an embassy to solicit
the hand of his daughter.

3 See Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Duchesne, apud
Mazeres ; W. Pict., &c.

108 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

special good fortune, lie died exactly in time to prevent
any junction taking place, in August, 1060.

The duke entered upon Ms new campaign with spirit.
He made Falaise the centre of his operations, and, pur-
suing his system of flying columns, sought to amuse the
enemy till he was enabled to strike some signal and de-
cisive blow. He always watched, as at Hastings, for the
commission of some error on the part of the enemy of
which to take advantage ; and, if it were not offered, he
had skill and tact enough to provoke it. While harass-,
ing the confederate earls by this system of desultory
warfare, he gained strength and wasted their resources.
His skill in wielding detached bodies was equal to his
power of directing masses. He thus devastated the
line of the enemy's march, reducing them to extreme
want, and attacking them with his bowmen and light
troops, both in flank and rear. Young as "William yet
was, his consummate art in war was the result of long
experience and years of continual peril and action.
This superior knowledge enabled him to adopt all the
advantages of a guerilla system, even in open plains,
and at a period when it was comparatively little known
and less practised, except in the Spanish wars with the
Moors of the South. Though at the head of twenty
thousand men, the duke was unwilling to trust the
issue to a general battle, till the favourable moment
arrived, and he could attack the combined host with
full promise of success. Young Martel penetrated as
far as Bayeux, thence to Caen, and, passing the Oriie
and the Dive, ravaged the country with his mercenary
hordes, and threatened to lay Rouen itself under contri-
bution.

At length the wished-for moment for a general action

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 109

arrived. By a forced march the duke entered the valley
of Bavent, took his powerful enemies by surprise ; and,
by the brilliant victory of Varaville in 1061, was in a
position to dictate the most humiliating terms to his
haughty rivals. So great was the multitude of prisoners
that, we are assured, the Normans, like the English at
Agincourt, were alarmed at their prodigious number;
for all the confederate leaders were either taken or slain.
Barons and earls of different states; — the counts de
Meulan, de Roussi, and de Soissons, with the famed
Buzas, the great scourge of the Normans, were all in the
hands of the victorious duke,4 awaiting the doom they
had so inconsiderately provoked.

With the exception of Hastings, this terrific battle,
followed by such a victory, was the most important in
its results of any in which William was ever engaged.
The eyes of Europe were now directed towards him, as
the bravest and most accomplished prince of his times,
and the most skilful and fortunate of all European com-
manders. He had attained the high reputation foretold
by the most formidable and able of his numerous com-
petitors, the unfortunate Earl of Anjou. He had shown
that, by the exhaustless resources of his military genius,
he could defend Normandy, through a series of splendid
campaigns, against large bodies of troops greatly superior
to his own, led by chiefs, before unrivalled, boasting
every advantage of external aid and civil discord.

4 We are told that Geoffrey, the young leader of the confederated
bands, was seized with such despair upon seeing the numbers slain by
the Norman spear and bowmen, that he fought his way to the bridge, in
the hope of repairing it before the whole of his splendid host should be
destroyed. But in this he was foiled, being compelled to leave his
veterans a prey to the sword of the victorious Norman. — Duchesne ;
Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; W. Pict. ; Ord. Vit. ; Robert of Gloucester.

110 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

William was only in the 38th year of his age when
he obtained this crowning triumph of his cause, that
promised to put a period to the fierce border struggles
in which he had been so long engaged. An immedi-
ate peace with his humbled rivals, with fresh advantages
beyond his most sanguine hopes, were the first fruits of
his happy fortune. At the court of France it produced
the most favourable influence, as regarded his future
operations; it created a respect amounting to awe,
especially when looking back at the numerous and
severe defeats which the French armies had sustained
— a lesson that forms the best safeguard for the fidelity
of a too powerful ally. Philip I., Henry's successor,
found himself in the same circumstances as William
had formerly been, in regard to that monarch's father;
and the son of the treacherous guardian now stood
with relation to William, still more at his mercy, with-
out any such claims upon the Norman duke as had the
latter upon the forbearance, or gratitude, of Henry.

It is interesting to observe what was the conduct
pursued by William towards the son of his false-
hearted guardian in these circumstances, when newly
flushed with conquest, at the head of a powerful veteran
army, and master of the most warlike states in Europe.
His conduct was, doubtless, actuated by policy ; but it
was enlightened policy, which is real humanity. Bury-
ing the remembrance of past feuds and differences, he
held out the hand of amity to the young king. T(
of peace were gladly accepted by the new regency, at
the head of which was Baldwin, earl of Flanders, the
father of William's consort.

Thus intimately allied with the courts of France and
Flanders, it became an easy task for so politic a states-

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Ill

man and warrior to crush the spirit of insubordination,
and unite the discordant elements of his power in one
harmonious and effective rule. He had extended, as
well as consolidated, his dominions by the annexation
of the important county of Maine ; and its bishop
Ernaut, attended by all the prelates and barons, with
crozier and banners, came forth to receive and swear
fealty to their future sovereign.5 The French regency
had soon reason to congratulate itself upon its amicable
relations with William, who showed himself a real
guardian of the interests of the young king. A formid-
able revolt broke out in the south, the Gascons refusing
to acknowledge the authority of the regency, and to do
homage to the crown. Baldwin raised an army under
pretext of marching against the Moors in Spain, of
which he invited the duke to assume the command.
He consented, and, taking the insurgents by surprise,
occupied the whole of Gascony and Languedoc, speedily
receiving the submission of the refractory states. This
he effected without engaging in a single act of hostility,
or meeting with any armed resistance to the orders of
the government which he represented.

On his return into Normandy, the duke devoted his
attention to restoring law and justice, and amalgamat-
ing the interests of his new states. He had to repair
the effects of baronial turbulence, rivalry, and disseii-

5 The fate of its former master, Martel, the unfortunate Earl of Anjou,
was a singular one. That great leader never recovered the shock of his
fallen fortunes ; he renounced his title and estates in favour of his
nephew, and assumed the habit of a monk in the gloomy cloisters of St-
Nicholas at Angers. There he died, after a short noviciate of only six
months, and was succeeded in the territories that remained to him by
Geoffrey le Barbu, and by his nephew Fouqu£, son of his sister and Alan,
count of Gastines in Poitou.

112 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

sion ; of long, exhausting conflicts ; and of the mutual
hatred and aggressions of his relatives and the great earls.
To bring under the general authority of a fixed govern-
ment so many incongruous and conflicting elements
was no common task. He had to make submissive
subjects out of turbulent lords and petty vassals, already
habituated to a system of feudal rights and adventurous
freedom which left a sovereign little but the name. He
was only the chief feudal lord, with less real power than
many of his great vassals; and this was especially the
state of the feudal laws in France, from which those of
Normandy were derived, and to which the circumstances
of the country had given increased force.

This invasion of the, sovereign prerogative the genius
of William could ill brook ; and he took the most cau-
tious, yet firm and deep-rooted measures, to counteract
the bold and growing encroachments of baronial sway.
That he effected his object, and rendered them not only
submissive, but instrumental in promoting his future
aggrandisement, forms his highest praise as a statesman.
He carried to its highest pitch the sovereign authority,
as exercised under the feudal institutions then in pro-
gress, and by its severe discipline he mayjustly be averred
to have caused that necessary reaction, which finally
gave a magna charta to the nobles and to the people of
England.

Nor was the duke less successful in re-establishing
general peace and order, renewing charters to the chief
towns, and those trading privileges to the " notables "
from which he trusted to receive resources in case of
need. He carefully encouraged these powers of indus-
try, as some equipoise to the overweening ambition and
feudal oppression of the lords of the soil. He effected

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 113

such other useful alterations in the military tenures,
from the serf to the vassal and the upper lords, as were
calculated to limit the rule of each by rendering them
in some measure amenable to his " ducal council." His
great prelates were by degrees brought to acquiesce in
the same system of responsibility to the government of
the State ; insomuch that, while artfully engaged in ex-
tending his own prerogatives, "William was really laying
a foundation for the future greatness and prosperity of
his people.

He next cleared his territories of all the " merce-
naries,"— those free, vagrant bands of adventurers, called
into action, and pouring in from all quarters, whenever
there was a fresh division of the spoils of war.

Other fomenters of discord and intrigue, employed by
foreign powers, in the shape of spies — the wandering
minstrels, called " gleemen and trouveurs" — were sub-
jected to the " watch and strict discipline " of a newly-
organised police. For, though fond of sometimes
indulging a satiric and even ribald vein at the expense
of his royal contemporaries, he had too often experi-
enced its bad effects upon popular opinion to permit its
unrestricted circulation in the satiric poems or humorous
ballads of the day. Indeed, his edicts at this time, as
subsequently in England, all aimed at the repression of
licence both in words and acts — a laudable restriction,
but which, carried beyond certain bounds, is apt to
degenerate into a mere instrument for the purposes of
arbitrary rule. It had the effect at this time of check-
ing personal violence, and exterminating that petty
system of robbery and spoliation, considered by the
great earls and barons as one of their rights over their
unfortunate vassals and serfs of the land. Nor was the

VOL. i. i

114 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

benefit of such measures confined to this result ; for
they tended gradually to raise up a secondary class of
proprietors, vassals, and dependents ; alleviating, in some
degree, the weight of a feudal chain so oppressive as
that in France, and so injurious to the real sovereign
power.

It was thus that the duke strengthened the hands of
his government by securing the preponderance of more
general laws. The national character now rose into
importance; no longer the resort of outlaws, pirates,
and depredators of all kinds, Normandy assumed its
rank, and soon took the lead in the race of European
nations. Towns were extended, public works esta-
blished, industry and commerce began to dawn. So
great was the magic effect of one vigorous and enlight-
ened mind, while intent at the same time upon its own
particular interests and aggrandizement.

The great qualities, too, of William as a ruler, were
exhibited at this period of his career, divested of those
darker shades of character which insatiable ambition
and avarice, gorged with human spoil, afterwards threw
around them. It was not yet his object to provoke
those public insurrections, which, affording a plea for
confiscation, excited the .worst passions of a conqueror ;
led him to aim at the establishment of a stern, unrelent-
ing despotism, and presented, in a country which he
vainly sought to subdue, the singular anomaly of a
constitutional form of government, and acknowledged
free laws in the hands of the absolute ruler of a minor
state.6

To give authority to his new plans of government and
police, the duke next summoned a ' ' general council

6 Alison ; Brodie j Smythe ; LIngard ; Mackintosh ; Henry.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 115

at Caen — the model, doubtless, of the commune Con-
cilium, as distinct from the ducal " private council " as
that of the " magnates," or barons and prelates ; and
closely analogous to those popular assemblies which
gradually acquired the powers and privileges of our
modern parliament. It consisted of the different orders
of the States; namely, of archbishops, bishops, abbots,
priors, &c. ; of earls, counts, barons, knights, &c. ; and
of the notables or chief burgesses, the deputies of the
principal towns.7 Investing it with the solemn character
of a religious festival, he consecrated the State compact
with the holy relics of Saints Ouen and Romain, being
well aware of the efficacy of such a religious bond in
producing the zeal and enthusiasm conducive to the
ulterior objects he had in view.

Nor did the civil arrangements adopted on this occa-
sion less display William's careful attention to two
essential points, namely, the increasing of his revenues,
and enforcing obedience to the laws. A compact body
of archers, part of his new police, had orders to traverse
the city during the continuance of the sittings of the
" States," from the Wednesday evening to the ensuing
Monday, the better to preserve public order and decorunv
He sought to inspire the people with becoming respect
for a national spectacle so imposing, and for the religious
ceremonies, towards which he evinced so politic a rever-
ence, as never to omit them upon any serious occasion.
In the present case, it was decreed that, upon any inter-
ruption of the solemn deliberations, the offenders were
to be arrested, fined, and imprisoned. Nay, in aggra-
vated instances of insubordination, they were to be

7 Thierry ; Sismondi ; Walsingham ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chroo.
de Nor.

116 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

excommunicated until the time when they or their
friends could pay into the ducal exchequer the sum of
ten livres (tournois) or smaller amounts, proportioned
to the offence, at the discretion of his brother Odo, then
bishop of Bayeux.

The period during which the people were amenable to
this edict, was emphatically termed le temps de treve —
a season of truce, more favourable to the ducal finances
than to the pockets of the good people of Rouen.

The great prelates and barons, on their side, were
sworn over the holy relics to observe the ordinances
applying to them,8 a ceremony not performed without
some reluctance, calculated, as it evidently was intended,
to define and limit their authority, while it added to the
power of the government and the safety of the State.
The ordinances9 emanating from this assembly convey a
characteristic idea of the Norman laws of that period.
Based upon military order, and that regard for severe

8 One of these edifying ordinances runs as follows : — " All abbots and
country prelates shall henceforth reside in the town nearest to their own
abbeys, forasmuch as it is a great scandal to the people to see them
rurming about as they are wont to do.

" 2nd. Every night the great bell shall be rung throughout each parish,
to admonish every one to worship God, and close his house, instead of
running about the streets.

" 3rd. Henceforward all robbers, murderers, and malefactors, shall
punished with the utmost rigour of the laws, to be put in force by
regular criminal process."

Other laws, of a like repressive character, both civil and crh
were passed upon this interesting occasion. — Nouvelle Hist, de Nor.
Chron. de Nor. ; Mazeres.

9 The Norman curfew, among these, oppressive and tyrannical as
appears to us3 was no solitary example, the custom being generally
prevalent in Spain and other countries. It was highly useful to th<
system established by William, and was long enforced under the name o
the ordinance du couvre feu, or putting out the fire.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 117

discipline inherent in the feudal system, they bound the
sovereign lord not less than his great vassals and the
whole people, in one extensive chain, insomuch that,
without an impulse given to the entire body, and the
consent of the subordinate parts, no suzerain or
supreme head could venture to carry his designs into
execution.

The Norman curfew was another, but by no means
a new device, forming part of the general laws; nor was
it afterwards established in England by the duke as a
conqueror, solely with a view of holding the people in
subjection, but a regulation of police intended to
prevent popular disorders, and professedly to enforce
the observance of prayer, moral restraint, 'and good
manners.

The nearest approach to it, in our own times, is found
in the injunctions conveyed in the royal proclamation
at a coronation, and on other state occasions ; and the
tenor of it, as regards the support of public morals and
decorum, was pretty much to the same effect.1

For the same reason the dukes of Normandy were
accustomed to preside in person and administer justice,
long after the age of Hollo in the law courts of that
period, which, simple and rude as they were, enjoyed a
higher reputation for the dispatch of public business
than those of a later day.

It is mentioned by contemporary and other writers3
that, to perpetuate the memory of this grand council,
the duke caused to be erected a church, dedicated to that

1 M. de Braz. ; Hist, de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Abbe
Prevost.

2 M. de Braz ; Ducarel ; Montfaucon ; Vestigia Ang. ; Nouv. Hist,
de Nor.

118 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

rarest of all saints, lay or clerical, St. Peace/ an honour,
however, of which that patron was subsequently deprived
by St. Mark, from the circumstance of the religious pro-
cessions of the town being assembled upon the latter
saint's day.

That the duke left no means untried to give a religious
sanctity as well as political importance to this great
assembly of his States, is sufficiently evident from con-
temporary records, and from the fact of his having pre-
sided at it in person, accompanied by his accomplished
and beloved consort, the duchess Matilda. Both also
held courts upon the occasion, displaying a munificence
calculated to confer lustre upon such an event. It was
indeed the* noblest mode of celebrating his signal vic-
tories, and of dedicating 'his legislative labours to St.
Peace ; labours by which he was recognised as the head
of the Norman church, as well as of the State. That
church he now rendered amenable to his feudal sway^
while, by apparent concessions, he contrived to continue
upon the best terms of amity with the papal court.

Undisputed master of the ducal throne, the heir of
duke Robert fully displayed those refined tastes and
that love of splendour and magnificence which had dis-
tinguished most of his predecessors, and became a
powerful prince. He surrounded himself by men of
high character and learning, among whom were Lanfranc
and other distinguished foreigners, especially of Italy
and Spain ; he encouraged the liberal not less than the
useful arts, and, induced by the example of his consort,
joined her in founding many of those noble edifices and
great public works, which have made the ecclesiastical

3 This holy fane, vainly dedicated to St. Peace, was demolished by
the Protestants in 1562. The walls are still to be seen.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 119

and other antiquities of Normandy the admiration of
modern times.

A series of court festivals gave fresh eclat to the
meetings of the States ; a splendidly furnished table was
thrown open for the public entertainment during several
days ; and, to close the festivities, we are told/ a brilliant
ball drew the beauty and chivalry of the surrounding
counties to witness the celebration of these august
patriotic rites. Such a tribute of allegiance and respect
on the part of the high Norman dames — a sort of
guarantee for the good conduct of their lords — thus for
the first time paid to the court of William, showed the
deep policy by which he was actuated in these religious
and festive displays.

When the grand assembly broke up, not a little gra-
tified with their courteous and hospitable reception by
the duke and his consort, the prelates, barons, and bur-
gesses took their leave to return to their respective
towns and castles, not without abundant encomiums
upon the noble qualities and princely hospitality of both.

The subsequent successes of William, on the side of
Brittany, evinced equal statesmanship and soldierlike
conduct. In 1065, having restored peace and discipline
to his own dominions, he set out to adjust some differ-
ences which had arisen between his vassals, Alan and
Yves, who had already appealed to the sword. The
entire country was a prey to violence and faction, and
their lord suzerain arrived at that critical juncture
when the two armies stood in battle array, waiting but
the signal for the onset.

The presence of the great Norman had an instanta-

4 Nouvelle Hist, de Normanclie ; Chron. de Nor. ; Vie du Due
Guillaume.

120 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

neous effect; both parties stood in more awe of him
than of each other. The Bretons evinced their admira-
tion of his exploits by loud shouts of applause ; their
weapons fell from their hands; and he was unani-
mously chosen the umpire of their disputed claims.5 He
is described by the historians as suddenly making his
appearance, like a shepherd in a fold of lambs, scaring
away the wolves, restoring order and disposing of the
whole flock at his pleasure. In fact, he succeeded in
reconciling the claims of his incensed relatives, less
perhaps by his arguments or entreaties than by the
force of his character and his commanding presence.

But it is our unpleasant duty, while attempting to do
justice to the nobler traits and characteristics of this
extraordinary man, to have to contrast them with con-
duct of a very opposite kind, of which he is recorded
about this time to have been guilty. We are assured
that, with many amiable and high qualities, the duchess
Matilda was occasionally actuated by the same passions
uf avarice and revenge that subsequently cast their dark
shadow over the fame of her illustrious consort. It is
believed, that, instigated by some false accusations
brought against them by their enemies, she conspired
with Roger de Montgomery8 to deprive the most noble

5 W. of Malms. ; Walsingham ; Ord. Vit. ; W. Pict. ; Chron. de
Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; St. More ; Wace ; Mazeres.

6 With whom the duchess was accused, in her turn, of having been
upon too intimate terms. But it is not improbable that there may
have been stronger grounds for William's extreme harshness upon this
occasion ; for his was not a character to be lightly influenced by female
arts to commit unjust or impolitic actions. The frequent conspiracies of
his nobles, however, may have disposed him to give ear more readily to
the accusations of persons interested in the destruction of their rivals —
how much more so to those of one to whom he was so ardently attached
as the fascinating duchess ?

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 121

and faithful of William's adherents of their honour and
their property. She denounced, as guilty of conspiracy
against the duke's person and the State, the lords of
Conches, Grentesmesnil, Montreuil, Echauffaur, and
.Robert Geroie, the abbot of St. Evreux. There appears
sufficient reason to conclude that the charge was false ;
no evidence of their guilt, at all events, was adduced.
The motives which actuated their accusers were, pro-
bably, avarice and malice, and the object, spoliation.

That a prince like William should so easily have fallen
into the snare laid for him, not less than for the un-
happy accused, is an imputation, we fear, rather upon
his justice than upon his judgment, inasmuch as he
reserved a large portion of the spoils for himself and his
consort. Such a wholesale confiscation of estates, the
banishment or voluntary exile of the accused, with the
distribution of the property among their accusers, was
nothing short of offering a premium upon perjury and
falsehood ; thus perilling the honour and the fidelity of
those whose fortunes were bound up in his own, and
whom he ought, in accordance with his true policy, to
have been eager and zealous to vindicate. How serious
a responsibility he incurred, by not more deeply inves-
tigating the evidence brought against them, or wilfully
shutting his eyes to the truth, will soon appear by so
flagrant an act of injustice recoiling upon the heads of
its perpetrators. Many of the despoiled lords were com-
pelled to seek support in the wars of Italy and Spain ;
and the unfortunate abbot also made an unwilling
pilgrimage, the penalty of his having amassed too great
a property. He proceeded to lay his complaints be-
fore the holy see ; but his Holiness, Alexander, deeply

122 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

interested in the maintenance of the papal influence in
Normandy, and in the future success of so politic a
prince as William, declined to give any opinion, prudently
referring him to his famous contemporary Guiscard, the
head of the Norman refugees and adventurers in the
South. That sovereign outlaw taking compassion upon
the forlorn abbot, gave him a living in Calabria, or,
according to some writers, near Brundusium, where he
raised a new monastery beyond the reach of the duchess
and her partisans, founded his order with eleven monks
who followed him, and ruled over his little community
in peace for the space of twenty-seven years.

Though aware of the injustice to which he had lent
himself, William does not appear to have been guarded
against similar intrigues on the part of his consort and
a few favourite leaders, who had gained his confidence
only to abuse it.

Thus encouraged by William's weakness or his avarice,
Matilda did not hesitate at last to join the cabals of
the son against the father, while her false-hearted con-
federates— for there is no clear evidence, in support of
the rumour which represents them as her paramours —
were the very men who broke their faith, and rose in
arms against their master when enthroned King of
England.

The duke himself, forgetting his earlier and nobler
deeds, his true policy so gloriously pursued in those
acts of magnanimity, which drew round him faithful
hearts, and held Fortune spell-bound in his service, soon
emulated so unhappy an example, and, from that fatal
moment, his conquests were stained with tyranny and
blood; his family happiness was embittered, his fond

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 123

confiding trust in the sole partner of his heart, was
betrayed, and he ultimately became a passionate, vin-
dictive, and gloomy despot.

Soon after the period of William's marriage, indeed,
we trace a marked change in the character and objects
of his pursuits. He became uxorious ; seemed no longer
to devote himself only to honour and reputation in the
field ; to be no longer liberal, free, and magnanimous in
his actions. He evinced a more anxious and sordid
spirit, while his avarice and love of aggrandizement
were more strongly developed. Even the high qualities
and accomplishments of a consort whom he so ardently
loved, unaccompanied by a fine and lofty moral sense,
or the restraining power of principle, based upon the
true Christian graces, were more dangerous than edifying
to a character like that of the duke.

So great was the influence which this beautiful and
brilliant-minded woman gradually acquired over him,
to the future unhappiness and calamity of both, and
which descended like an heirloom to all their race;
and such his infatuation, that, soon after the Conquest
he consented to indulge her worst passions in the com-
mission of a crime of a still deeper dye. This was the
confiscation of the entire property of the man to whom
she had formerly been attached, the handsome Saxon
noble, Brithric,7 lord of Gloucester, who had declined her
love, when ambassador at her father's court.

Not content with seizing his estates and with the
ruin of his family, she caused the unfortunate earl

7 Brithric Meaw, a Saxon earl, of large possessions and of distinguished
merit. He had been sent by Edward the Confessor upon an embassy to the
court of Flanders.— Chron. de Tewks. ; Cotton MSS. ; Monasticon ; Le-
land ; Thierry ; Palgrave ; Rise and Progress.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

to be thrown into a dungeon, from which it is most pro-
bable he was delivered only by the dagger or the bowl.
He was never afterwards heard of ; and, had a noble so
powerful and beloved died a natural death, the fact
would have been recorded in our Saxon annals. The
permission to wreak her full woman's revenge is of itself
a stain upon the character of William, who, sharing in
the plunder, gave his sanction to the deed. It was
murder and robbery combined ; there are no palliating
circumstances to be pleaded by either ; but it stands in
startling relief, an enduring monument to posterity,
that no rank and privileges can exempt evil-doers
from the retributive vengeance which lives in the re-
cord of such a crime. It gave the English nobles and
prelates a bitter foretaste of what they were to expect
under the servitude which William1 and his Norman
followers were destined to impose upon their country.8
These dark spots in the bright Norman sun, which
rose with so much splendour, are here alluded to, because,
from the date of the Conquest, which we now approach,
we shall fail to discover in William's conduct and actions
the same moderation, the same magnanimity in the
hour of victory, the same clemency and generosity to
the fallen, or that confidence in the fidelity of his fol-
lowers, which distinguished his policy during his earlier
Norman sway.

8 Hallam, Hist, and Govern, of the Middle Ages, ii. 159.

125

CHAPTER IV.

Summary of William's policy — State of England — Circumstances favour-
able to his views of succession — State of parties — Merits of the rival
aspirants — Question of hereditary right — Will of the sovereign — Of
the people — Of relationship — Relative power — Advantages possessed
by Harold — Fatal voyage to Normandy — Shipwreck — Reception at
the Norman court — His detention by William — Ascendency acquired
over him — Alarmed and allured into the duke's toils — Engaged in the
duke's interests — Attends him in his campaigns — Is entertained at
court — William "offers Harold the hand of one of his daughters — In-
duces him to support his views — Compels him to swear upon the holy
gospels — Harold's return to England — His imprudent measures — Death
of Edward the Confessor — Accession of Harold — Conduct of William
on this occasion — His wary policy — His resources — Extraordinary in-
fluence of his genius — Knowledge of character — Power of concentrating
his energies and means — General assembly of the States — Great coun-
cils— Negotiations with France — Other States — The papal court —
Preparation of his armaments — Regency of Normandy — Assembling
of his fleets and armies — Sets sail for England — His landing — Battle of
Hastings — Losses on both sides — Exaggerated statements — The Con-
queror returns to his camp — Field of the Lake of Blood.

IT would be unjust to describe the actions of William,,
as Duke of Normandy, without awarding to them their
due meed of praise. A career so extraordinary and so
brilliant, yet so free from those errors of conduct which
sullied his reign over a greater and more powerful people,
could only receive an accession of fame from his crown-
ing victory at Hastings ; a victory which made him the
founder of an empire mightier than that of Charlemagne.
At the period of that memorable event, England
seemed destined to fall a prey to contending factions,

126 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

which threatened to revive the heptarchy, or to extend
the Danish sway from the Humber to the banks of the
Thames.

The successful usurpation of Harold would have
opened the way for a long series of wars, for all the
inevitable ills of intestine division and civil conflicts.
The insurrections already fomented by his brother, and
fresh inroads of the Danish hosts, showed that no arm
less strong than that of the famed Norman could have
effectually repelled the tide of war from the British
shores. If even invasions of the Scotch and the Welsh
held the kingdom in continued alarm, ravaged its most
fertile counties, and carried away its inhabitants as
slaves, how difficult must it have been for Harold, in the
face of legitimate claimants of the throne, and factions
in alliance with foreign courts, to maintain his empire
against so many enemies !

Had not so powerful an arbitrator then appeared
upon the scene, that worst of all tyrannies, a weak
monarchy, combined with a powerful oligarchy, to which
the Anglo-Saxon government was fast approaching — a
government to be dreaded from the oppressive spirit of
its peculiar laws, would have undermined the free
institutes of our Egberts and our Alfreds. Such an
oligarchy is as adverse to the liberties as to the industry
and prosperity of a people ; it had sprung from military
conquest, and was based upon the slavery of the masses.
Its badge was serfdom, and its rule was anarchy, a
conflict of the elements of which it was composed ; and
hence the incessant prevalence of internal wars and
foreign invasions up to the period of the Conquest.1 It

1 Hallam ; Brodie ; Alison ; Smythe's Lectures ; Mackintosh ; Henry ;
Lingard.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 127

is a question if a strong government, ably though,
harshly administered by the victorious Norman, were
not preferable to such a state of things. For so great
was the love of freedom inherent in all classes above
the serfs, as to resist his utmost efforts to establish a
virtual despotism, under the guise of constitutional laws ;
a view of the Conquest which may afford some consola-
tion for the cruelties and oppressions2 at first perpe-
trated. Still it can form no justification for a ruler who
professed to assume the sceptre by the free voice of
the people, and who contracted a solemn obligation to
govern by the existing laws, which he violated. He
could not, however, so easily destroy the traditions and
efface the recollections in which lay treasured up the
future constitution of England.

The victory of Hastings was assuredly one of the
most memorable actions known in ancient or modern
times, whether we consider the relative strength of the
parties, or the bravery, power, and resources of the
Anglo-Saxons. A brief retrospect will convince us of
the truth of this assertion, without alluding to the com-
parative ease with which William afterwards repressed
the Norman insurrections, with the aid of only a few
English troops.

The reception of the duke at the English court by
Edward, with that monarch's grateful recollections of
Normandy, independently of his aversion for the family
of earl Godwin, were sufficient to raise in "William no
unreasonable hopes of the succession. Without children,
Edward naturally directed his attention to a successor
worthy of filling the throne. The death of his nephew

* Hallam ; Brodie ; Alison ; Smy the's Lectures ; Mackintosh ; Henry ;
Lingard.

128 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Edward, the son of his brother Edmund Ironside, left
him free to make his own selection ; for Edgar Athel-
ing, the infant son of Edmund, was too young and of
too feeble a character to be placed in competition with
the avowed designs of Harold and the intrigues of his
aspiring brother.3 That in such circumstances he
should have turned his eyes upon his near relative, the
Duke of Normandy, as one who, from his high reputa-
tion and capacity, was able to arrest the ambition of
the nobles, and avert the calamities of a war of succes-
sion, seems not only probable, but in unison with the
whole tenor of his conduct, with the evidence of historic
facts, and the isolated position in which he stood. There
is enough of this circumstantial evidence to show his
inclination to adopt William as his heir ; and this the
casual absence of any testamentary document cannot
fairly impugn ; for, though such might be his wishes,
there were sufficient reasons why he should keep them
secret, and not record them by a will, which might
have endangered his life. It would, in fact, have been
putting fresh weapons into the hands of Harold and
his reckless partisans, and subjecting himself to fresh
insults.

The only person stated to have been in the king's
confidence was the well-known Robert, a Norman eccle-
siastic of high family, whom he had raised to the archie-
piscopal see of Canterbury; and historians assert4
that this prelate employed his influence with the king

3 Earl Godwin and his sons justified themselves before the grand
council of the nation against the criminal accusations of the Norman
leaders, especially of the archbishop Robert, They were fully restored to
all the honours and places of trust. — Haddon MS., with Authorities.

4 Duchesne ; Chron.de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; W. of Malms.:
Wace ; Walsingham ; Prevost.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 129

to prevail on him to appoint William his heir ; that he
was even sent by Edward to acquaint the duke with
his determination in regard to the succession. His
motives for deciding in William' s favour are also
specified,5 while the indubitable marks of affection
bestowed by him upon the Normans of every rank, in
raising them to the first offices in the realm, prove how
earnestly and sincerely he must have desired to prepare
the way for the completion of his design.

Indeed, it is not improbable that, in the absence of
the haughty and rebellious family of earl Godwin, whose
usurpation of sovereign power6 was confirmed by the
daring, talent^ and influence of the soldier-like Harold,
the Norman duke might have quietly ascended the
vacant throne, even without opposition from the lineal
heir, the Saxon Edgar, and his two sisters, Christian
and Margaret.

If duke William were really in possession of so in -
portant a secret confided to him by Edward, through
his accredited agent the archbishop, he must have
beheld, in brilliant perspective, the approaching realisa-
tion of his most aspiring wishes. The presumed title of
itself, however, merely supplied him with an excuse to
draw the sword, for he must have known that, in accord-
ance with the Saxon laws, the will of the king was a

5 W. Pict. 77 ; Ord. Vital. 492.

6 It was farther decreed, that the Norman favourites, who had pro-
moted discord and set the king against his natural subjects, should depart
the land. The archbishop was exiled in the second year of his office,
with all his Norman creatures, detested by the English. Edward gave
his reluctant consent only on condition that Godwin deposited in his
hands pledges of his future loyalty. These he sent into Normandy for
safer custody. Hence the «fons malorum" of all that subsequently
occurred.— Haddon MSS., B. M.

VOL. I. K

130 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

dead letter, without the accompanying consent of the
nobles and the people.7

Another great obstacle presented itself in the actual
power of Harold, his redoubtable military talents and
his pre-occupation both of the throne and the field.
These circumstances induced William to try every art
of diplomacy, and to make every exertion to prejudice
the claims of a subject, who presumed to arrogate an
authority, to which not any noble of the realm had pre-
viously aspired. He was aware that, by earl Godwin's
marriage with Thirra, king Canute's daughter, there
was a numerous issue ; and that, previously to the death
of that earl, the high character and exploits of his son
Harold, one of which was bearing arms against his
sovereign, enabled that powerful noble to dictate his
own terms, and in fact, to usurp the government of the
country. Wessex, Essex, Kent, and Sussex, were all
under the immediate rule of Harold ; and he was high-
steward of the royal household, an office of great
influence and importance.8 With equal ambition, h(
had greater talents, more noble and amiable qualities
than his father, though all his efibrts were unsuccessful
in removing the king's extreme aversion to the mem
bers of his family. He extorted however the appoint
ment of his brother Tostig to the government of Nor
thumberland ; and, being perfectly aware of the views
entertained by the Norman duke, he sought to strengthen
his own cause by the marriage of this brother with the

7 No historians, English or Norman, except William of Poitou (181
191), pretend that William had the consent of the Estates ; and he say
that the donation was made by the advice of Edward's great men ; fo
which there is no ground whatever.— Haddon MSS., B. M.

8 Hume ; Kennet ; Henry ; Lingard ; Tyrrell ; Eadmer ; Hovedon
Bromp. ; S. of Durham ; Bayeux Tapestry ; W. Pict.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, 131

second daughter of the Earl of Flanders, in the hope
doubtless of weakening his rival's influence in that
quarter.

Harold, likewise, had omitted no means of ingratiating
himself both with the nobles and the people; but
there was one consideration which paralysed all his
efforts. This was the hostages given to Edward
for the fidelity of Godwin, and placed by him in
the hands of the duke, namely, Harold's younger
brother, Woolnoth, and his nephew Hacon ; and he.
feared that, in the event of the King's death, William
would employ his power over them to enforce his title
to the crown. He also feared that he might proclaim
himself the protector of Edgar Atheling, as the surest
means of smoothing his own path to the throne. It
was, consequently, his object to obtain their liberty
during Edward's lifetime ; and he represented to that
monarch the inexpediency of leaving two noblemen so
strongly attached to his person in the power of the
Norman duke. Since the death of the earl his father,9
it was added, such a step was more imperative, and,
his application being couched in the form of a menace
rather than of a request, the feeble monarch empowered
Harold to negotiate for their exchange.1

Harold's subsequent voyage, his reported shipwreck

9 A death reported to have been extremely sudden. He was seated at
table with the king, and there being some question of his fidelity, the
earl is said to have broken a piece of bread and prayed to God that it
might choke him if he were a traitor. He fell back and expired.

1 Harold possessed, in fact, the power of the king in Edward's life-
time ; he was earl of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Berk-
shire, Somersetshire, Devon, and Cornwall ; all which, however, like the
royal dignity itself, were in the nature of an office, not hereditary, but
disposable, and had been enj oyed before by his father. — Haddon, MSS., B . M,'

132 ^VILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

upon the coast, in 1064, and his courteous detention in
the hands of William, who declined to comply with the
object of his mission, form strong presumptive evidence
of Edward's want of good faith towards Harold, notwith-
standing his pious title of Confessor. That in this
embassy he was playing the royal game into the hands
of the duke of Normandy there seems little reason to
doubt. The splendid retinue of Harold, as depicted in
the Bayeux tapestry, the number of vassals, intended to
impress William with a sense of his influence and power,
and his exhibition of the royal authority to withdraw the
hostages ; all tend to show that the embassy was com-
municated to the Norman prince, and Harold's detention
most probably premeditated.

The gay and courtly armament, however, was cast
away upon a part of the French coast in possession of
the earl of Ponthieu. A poor fisherman who had seen
Harold in England is said to have recognised him, and,
hastening to the earl, to have promised for the sum
of ten crowns to put into his hands a prisoner worth
more than a thousand. All the survivors of the hurri-
cane, as well as the ships, were seized in the road of
Hourdel, and Harold himself was conveyed to the town
of Abbeville.2

The result would probably have been the same, had
Harold arrived in more trim and gorgeous array. It is
enough t^hat he was detained against his will. Little
suspicious 'and less artful, he had indubitably been over-
reached by his more politic rival, who, instead of giving
up his hostages, seized the opportunity of adding to
them another far more important. Yet could he have

2 Nouvclle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; apud Mazeres ; Ord. Vit.;
W. Malms. ; Ypodigma ; Walsinghain ; Wace ; Chron. Sax.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 133

dared to commit so flagrant a breach of faith as, without
the connivance of king Edward, to violate the respect
due to the person of his envoy? He did more; he
resolved to extort from Harold that promise to support
his pretended title to the crown, which was alone want-
ing to the confirmation of Edward's secret or express
bequest. Harold, doubtless indignant that he had either
fallen or was betrayed into the snare, and at all events
unjustly held captive, naturally conceived that it was
excusable in him to adopt any subterfuge, or comply
with any conditions to regain his liberty. Under all
the circumstances, indeed, to conduct such an embassy
in person would have been a serious imputation upon
Harold's penetration and judgment, unless we adopt
the supposition that he relied upon the sacred character
of an envoy,3 and upon the rank and number of his
retinue, for impressing the duke with due respect for
his mission.

William was at Rouen when he heard of the accident
which had thrown Harold and his suite into the power
of his tributary and neighbour. He at once claimed
them, and, to cut short all delays, assented to the terms
required, — " a gift," we are told, " of the noble manor
of Yonne, situated upon that river, and other lands, for
the sole use and benefit of the lord of Ponthieu."

Harold was received by the duke at his court at
Rouen with the honours due to so brave and distin-
guished a noble. His were at least golden chains, and
he wore them lightly and gracefully, while they ex-

3 There is another, version of this passage of Harold's history, that, to
his credit, represents him to have been upon a pleasure party, and acci-
dentally overtaken by a storm, and thrown upon the French coast. —
W. Pict. ; W. of Malms.

134 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

changed all the courtesies of true and gallant knights.
He accompanied the duke to a splendid entertainment
given by the French king at Compiegne, where they
are said to have held joust and tourney ; or, in the words
of the Norman chronicler, "to have engaged in rare
feats of honour." It is even added that the English
earl consented to sojourn some time at the ducal court,
and attended William in one of his expeditions against
Brittany.4 Here he distinguished himself by his sol-
dierlike qualities, "showing himself a man neither
rash in undertaking, nor fearful in performing any
services of the field." 5 Admiring his bravery and good
conduct, William became still more desirous of gaining
him over to his views; both the duchess and himself
lavished upon him the greatest tokens of their regard,
and, to prove their sincerity, proposed to bestowupon him
one of their daughters, then only a child of seven years,
in marriage. With less policy, but perhaps equal
sincerity, Harold suffered himself to be affianced, thus
affording another advantage to his future rival.

Every incident, indeed, connected with this embassy,

4 This would appear to have been against Conan II., of which more
than one chronicle gives us a full account. We are informed also that
this earl was poisoned by a baron of his own court, whom he had sent to
the duke with a message of defiance. This traitor spread a powerful
poison on the inside of the earl's gloves, and on the reins of his horse.
The poison being so subtle, was imbibed by the hands and the breath
into the earl's body, and brought on a sickness of which he died. Upon
this event, the traitor who had been the cause of the earl's death, fearful
of his guilt being detected, fled from the Breton army, and went over to
the duke of Normandy to inform him of the earl's death. From this
circumstance it was absurdly rumoured that William, dreading the rising
talents and successes of the young earl, had some hand in thus shortening
his days ; but of this there is not the slightest evidence.

6 Hayward ; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Wace.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 135

served to place the duke in a more commanding posi-
tion. Even the attempt of his great vassal Conan II.,
to throw off his allegiance at the instigation of William's
enemies, on the ground of his legitimate descent from
a sister of Richard the Good, redounded only to the
farther triumph of the Norman, and added to the diffi-
culties and dependence of Harold.6 Not only was he
enlisted in the duke's campaigns, but everywhere
appeared with him in public, as if, in the character of
an ambassador, to give sanction to the duke's claims to
the English crown, while in nothing was this artful
policy more triumphant than in courting his alliance,
and heaping upon him honours and distinctions, which
he could not refuse.7 Hunting and hawking, balls and
festivals, succeeded each other in profusion, to all which
Earl Harold was invited — the duchess at her court
vieing with the duke himself, in showing how well
they could appreciate the amiable and noble qualities
of their reluctant guest.

At length, seizing the favourable moment when
Harold expressed his pleasure at the prospect of so
intimate an alliance as that proposed, the duke took him
aside, and told him of king Edward's kind promise ;
and the proofs he had that it was his intention that he
(the duke), should succeed him in the English throne.8

6 William, though he signed himself Bastardus with great coolness,
did not fail to remind the legitimate Conan of his duty to do homage to
him, in accordance with the suzerain law, so strictly defined and traced
up to ancient usage, in the time of Hollo, their common ancestor. Conan
refused to comply, entered Normandy, seized on the castle of St. James,
made incursions in the territories of Maine and Anjou, penetrating as
far as the castle of Goutiers, when his career was suddenly cut short, as
we have related.

7 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Duchesne ; Chron. de Nor.

8 Norman historians assert, as strongly as all English writers deny,

136 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Harold is stated to have replied that "it was
" Being fully aware/' continued the duke, " of your
high reputation and great influence in England, I have
for some time past resolved to request your assistance,
when the decisive moment shall have arrived." Earl
Harold was too good a courtier to express his astonish-
ment at this address ; but he remained silent ; " and in
return," resumed the duke, " my actions will show that
you may count upon my gratitude — a gratitude without
bounds — upon the splendour and aggrandisement of all
your family, and a perfect reconciliation with the
present king." *

The English earl, too sensible that he was in Wil-
liam's power, and thus artfully informed for the first
time of the duke's motives, and probably those of Ed-
ward, in sanctioning his voyage into Normandy ; dread-
ing also to be retained as a third hostage; at once pro-
fessed to espouse the duke's interests, with a degree of
dissimulation which he conceived to be fully justified
by the snare which had been laid for him. He pro-
mised, with as good a grace as he could assume, to accede
to Edward's wishes and support the duke's claims to
the throne.

Having gained this important concession, William, to
show how eager he was to cement this new alliance by
the closest ties, led Harold into an adjoining hall of

the donation on the part of Edward, either to the duke or to his prede-
cessor ; on the contrary, maintaining that he bequeathed the kingdom,
with the consent of the people, to earl Harold. — Haddon MS. Papers, B.M.

9 Hayward ; Lives of the Norman Dukes, &c. ; Abb6 Prevost ; Vic
du due Guillaume ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor.

1 This last remark seems strongly to corroborate the view we have
taken of this dubious portion of William's life. — Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ;
Duchesne ; Chron. de Nor. ; W. Malms. ; Ord. Vit. ; Thierry.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 137

the palace, where, before a splendid assembly, was pub-
licly performed the ceremony of pledge-troth between,
the affianced parties, the young princess Adeliza and
the noble Saxon, which was confirmed with the most
binding oaths.2 The duke, as if suspicious that the con-
sent was feigned, or to make all doubly sure, had next
recourse to a proceeding as imposing as it was politic,
in the estimation of that heroic and superstitious age.
He summoned an assembly of prelates and barons at
Bonneville, or, according to another historian, at Bayeux,
but with more probability at the abbey of Jumieges, the
favourite abode of king Edward, when he resided in
Normandy. The grand religious ceremony observed by
William, when receiving the oaths and fealty of his
magnates, subsequently to his victories over his barons
and the French king, was now repeated by him, in the
hope of securing the fidelity of Harold while so fortu-
nately in his power.

The same holy vessels and other relics are said to
have been brought for the occasion from Notre Dame
and St. Ouen; "and among these," says the delighted
chronicler, " were seen the sacred remains of St. Candre,
which were ordered to be laid upon a chair covered with
cloth of gold, and upon the cloth a missal opened at a
chapter of one of the holy evangelists."

All these imposing preparations being completed in
the presence of Harold, and of the prelates and barons,
William recited the articles of agreement entered into
between them, including the betrothal of his daughter
and the compact by which he was to ascend the throne
of England after king Edward's decease. Harold then

- Chron. de Nor. ; Wace ; W. of Malms. ; Ord. Vit. ; Thierry ;
\V. Pict.

138 WILLIAM 'THE CONQUEROR.

placed Ms hand upon the missal, and swore by the holy
Evangelists to observe his promise and do nothing in
derogation of William's title to the crown.

The duke then ordered the cloth of gold to be raised,
and exhibited to Harold's view the collection of holy
relics upon which he had just sworn ; at the sight of
which, says the chronicle, the earl was seized with a
violent trembling.3

Whether we are to consider this portion of the Norman
Chronicles as in part or wholly apocryphal, inserted to
give a stronger title to William's succession, may be
dubious ; but, if the event actually took place, it is cha-
racteristic of the duke's usual caution and foresight in
preparing for the approaching contest. Nor is it at
variance with his studied observance of religious cere-
monies upon all interesting and important occasions.
Satisfied that he could exact no more from the unfortu-
nate Harold, William now bade him a courteous
farewell, lavishing upon him the last marks of his
high consideration and regard. He accompanied his
guest as far as Harfleur, where the latter, expressing his
sense of the duke's courtesy and hospitality, took ship
and arrived safely in England.

The subsequent conduct of earl Harold offers a happy
commentary upon the character of those forced compacts
which all history demonstrates to be made only to be
broken. Harold's first object was to free himself from
his trammels by forming new compacts with the duke's
enemies, by extending his influence at home, and rais-
ing a powerful army, which he disciplined in border

3 It is not a little illustrative of the superstition of the times that
Harold should feel so much more alarm at the idea of having sworn upon
the holy relics than upon the Scriptures themselves.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 139

wars against the Welsh and Northumbrian Danes. The
latter had thrown off the yoke of his brother Tostig, the
insurgents being led by Morcar and Edwin, two noble
brothers, who advanced to give Harold battle. Terms,
however, were proposed, soon after which the earl, for-
getting his pledge to duke William's daughter, consented
to espouse a sister of the two powerful lords, and the
richest heiress in England. Tostig, enraged at this new
alliance, hastened to the court of his father-in-law in
Flanders, where he did all in his power to injure the
cause of his gallant brother, whom he had till that time
so zealously supported.4

This quarrel and the false step previously taken may
be said to have cost Harold his future crown and his
life.5 It brought down upon him the invasion of the
Danes, at a juncture when his squadrons might have
swept the seas and annihilated the Norman fleet ; when
with his combined armies he might have opposed the
duke's landing with every advantage, instead of wasting
his best resources in repelling his brother Tostig and
his Danish allies.

Had he not committed these grievous errors, followed
by civil dissensions, so favourable to William's fortunes,
he might still have retained possession of the govern-
ment, and formed the head of a new^ dynasty of Anglo-
Saxon kings.

Upon his return in triumph to the capital, Harold
found king Edward upon the point of death. It is
recorded by more than one contemporary that, at this
crisis, he sought to extort from the dying monarch 6 a

4 Ord. Vit. ; W. Pict. ; Chron. Sax. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor.

5 Hume ; Henry ; Lyttleton ; Temple.

6 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Walsingham j Wace.

140 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

written attestation of his appointment to the succession,
but that the only answer he could obtain was that he
had already resigned his crown in favour of the duke of
Normandy;7 and, were he to comply with Harold's
wishes, it was extremely doubtful if he would ultimately
succeed.8 Harold persisted, and a curious scene is
stated to have taken place round the death-bed of the
pious monarch.

In the absence of the duke, Edward's presumed heir,
passing by Edgar on the score of his youth and feeble
character, the court and its satellites naturally turned
their eyes towards the rising sun. So loud was the
demonstration of their new-born loyalty towards Ha-
rold, that, disturbed by the uproar, the royal Confessor
turned his face towards the wall, and is reported to
have exclaimed : " Let the English make choice of
whom they please, the duke or the earl, je I'octroie —
I sanction it."

King Edward expired, January 5th, 1066, and was
interred at Westminster Abbey, of which he is declared
to have been the earliest founder. Earl Harold was
crowned at St. Paul's, by Aldred, archbishop of York ;
but the Saxon chroniclers9 agree that, when he was about
to place the crown on the earl's head, the latter took
the emblem of royalty from him, and put it on with his
own hands, as if giving the spectators to understand
that he had acquired it; the prelates, nobles, and people

7 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Walsingham ; Wace.

8 All our great constitutional authorities are agreed that no king of
England, circumstanced as Edward was, could, under the common law
or usage of England, make a donation of the crown. It has been decided
by the resolution of a full parliament, the most infallible interpreter of
our laws.— Haddon MSS., B. M.

9 Mat. of West. ; Chron. Sax. ; P. Pict. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 141

tacitly submitting to the usurpation, though in the pre-
sence of Edgar Atheling,1 the rightful heir.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the self-crowned
monarch took upon him to bestow the dignity of knight-
hood upon the young Edgar, whom he raised to the
earldom of Oxford, and retained near his person.2 Many
other nobles and prelates were promoted, and king
Harold sought to render himself popular by every
means in his power. Nor was he destitute of qualities
calculated to adorn a throne. Still there were sufficient
indications that his reign would be brief and perilous.
His brother Tostig was busily intriguing against him
at different foreign courts. Enemies seemed to spring
up on every side; the Danes were preparing a fresh
invasion; war was imminent. But king Harold wel-
comed the sound ; for, if not an experienced statesman,
he was a truly heroic soldier.

During this eventful and exciting interval, the duke
had not been an idle spectator of the scene. The
strenuous labours in which he was engaged to develop
the national resources proved that he had not implicitly
relied upon Harold, or expected to seize a prize like the
English crown without a struggle.3 Taking advantage
of his intimate alliance with the court of Flanders, and

1 So termed from the word atM, noble, a title borne by the sons of
Saxon monarchs. — Spelman, Gloss.

2 Prince Edgar and duke William were Harold's formidable com-
petitors ; one by his title, the other by his great power and military
achievements. But the first finding himself too weak, and the other too
remote to oppose him, he stepped into the throne, and was crowned the
day after Edward's decease. — Haddon MSS., B. M.

3 That Harold was elected king almost by the unanimous consent of
the nobility as well as the people, seems to be proved by the fact of not
a single man having gone over to the side of William after his landing. —
Haddon MSS., B. M.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

prompted by the zeal and spirit of his consort, he had
formed new plans for the promotion of trade and com-
merce, and for the extension of his naval as well as his
military power. His people were comparatively happy
and prosperous under a government as strong as it was
able and enlightened. It was extraordinary how soon
Normandy recovered from the effects of previous ravages,
and of foreign and domestic struggles, and had gradually
assumed a position that obtained for her the respect of
surrounding states of greater pretensions.

"William appears, indeed, to have been long intent
upon making preparations for the grand event of his
invasion of England. He devoted much time to the
improvement and increase of his shipping, planned
spacious harbours, and finally succeeded in raising Nor-
mandy to the first rank as a maritime power. Accom-
panied by his duchess, who took a lively interest in all
his undertakings, he visited the chief towns and ports of
his duchy," and continued some time at Cherbourg, where
he superintended the construction of its noble pier,
probably the first of the kind that had been built. He
was equally active in promoting the interests of other
sea-ports ; and personally inspected the improvement of
the ducal lands, and the great fiefs held under him as-
lord paramount. In the administration of his own
estates, he set a beneficial example to many of his.
haughty and rapacious barons.

William's government of Normandy, in fact, was
mild, compared with that of some of the northern
monarchs, the invaders of southern and western
Europe. Their conquests were not a mere change of
government, or the substitution of one race of monarchs
for another; but a total subversion of the property,

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 143

customs, and institutions of the vanquished people.4
The daughters of the greatest families among the con-
quered were compelled to receive husbands from the
leaders of their enemies, while those of the inferior
class were exposed to the grossest insults, or driven in
despair to the protection of convents. The youth of
the other sex, born to splendid possessions, were sold
as slaves, or compelled to labour as serfs,5 on the lands
which their fathers held as proprietors.

In England William attempted to rule, like one of
these northern conquerors, or as his ancestor Hollo had
first governed Brittany and Normandy. So far was
this system of disinheriting carried after the Conquest,
that, by a general enactment inserted in Doomsday-book,
all alienations by Saxons, subsequently to the Conquest
by William, and all titles to estates, not derived from
him, and registered in his books, were declared null.6
The misery and degradation of the vanquished riveted
chains about their necks, which were hardly relaxed by
the lapse of a thousand years.7 But this appalling
picture, which displays the character of William's
government in England, in direct violation of the laws
he had affected to sanction, was rendered still more
terrible by the burdens and abuses of a system, the
cruelty and oppression of which were left to subordi-
nate authorities to carry out.8

Duke William was hunting in the forest of Rouvray,
near Rouen, at the moment when he heard of Harold's
accession to the English throne. He was in the act,

4 Alison, Intro, to Hist, of Europe.

5 Alison ; Thierry ; Sismoncli ; Mackintosh ; Smythe. 6 Ibid.
"' Sismondi ; Thierry ; Hallam ; Smythe.

8 Alison ; Thierry ; Lingard ; Hallam ; Brodie ; Henry ; Smythe.

144 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

says his domestic chronicler/ of discharging his bow,
when a messenger arrived (January, 1066) with tidings
of the death of Edward, and the coronation of King
Harold. This messenger was Tostig, the new monarch's
brother, who, on ascertaining the fact from his spies
at Calais and Boulogne, rode post with the express
object of rousing the duke to the invasion of England
without delay.

For some time William appeared much affected and
lost in thought. The king's sudden death, and the
successful treachery, as he considered it, of Harold, pre-
occupied his mind too painfully, to enter into any
schemes with the traitor brother at such a moment.
It was not long, however, before he showed that he
knew how to avail himself of the vindictive and irre-
concileable hatred of this bad man, against the more
generous and noble-minded Harold.1

The duke, it is added, unstringing the bow which no
one else could bend, pensively resumed his way through

9 W. Pict. ; Gesta Gul. Ducis.

1 It is the opinion of some writers that Harold was elected king, if not
agreeably to the will of Edward, with the consent of the prelates, nobles,
and people. The Saxons, in general, used to ratify the will of the last
monarch in appointing a successor ; but neither Harold nor the duke
being specifically named, it could not invalidate the right of the people
to choose a monarch for themselves, especially at a time when they were
in danger of foreign invasion. — Higden Chron. Sax.; Hur. Urgon ; Sim.
Dunelm ; Eadmer Hist. Nouv. ; Diceto ; Abb. Chi-on. ; Hoveden, sub
ann. 1065, 1066; Lyttleton, Life of Henry II. When once masters of Eng-
land, no wonder the Normans should impeach Harold's title, and speak
of him as a usurper. It must have been dangerous for contemporary
writers to treat so delicate a subject with impartiality and truth. Wil-
liam had nothing to allege in support of his claims but a promise,
unauthenticated by any will, which also, without the ratification of the
great council, would not have been binding upon the people of England.
—Lyttleton ; Ingulphus. 65, 8 ; W. of Malms. 1. ii. f. 52.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 145

the forest towards the banks of the Seine, and, crossing
the river, he retired to his palace at Rouen, erected
upon the site of the present ancient tower. In great
agitation he traversed the hall with rapid strides, sud-
denly stopping and changing his position and attitude,
while not one of his attendants ventured to approach
him. At length one of his aged seneschals, in whom he
greatly confided, entering the room where the duke's
officers were assembled, they thronged around him, and
anxiously inquired if he knew the cause of their mas-
ter's extreme emotion. " I know nothing about it" was
his cavalier reply ; " but I soon shall/' he muttered to
himself, as he drew nigh and accosted William. " What
is the use, my liege, of trying to conceal what every-
body knows? You are troubled that the King of Eng-
land is dead; and that Harold, violating his sacred
engagements, has seized the kingdom ! " " Of a truth,"
replied the duke, " the death of king Edward and the
injuries of earl Harold touch me nearly."

As they were speaking, William Fitzosborne2 made his
appearance; he possessed considerable influence over
the duke's mind, and now employed it successfully to
restore his usual equanimity and good humour. The
advice he gave is too happy and philosophical to be
passed over in silence. ' ' No one," he began, " ought
to grieve and be angry at what he can remedy; and
still less at that for which there is no remedy. Now
there is no remedy for Edward's death; but there is
with respect to Harold's life; for you have power to

2 Then count and commander of Breteuil, so famous for his own ex-
ploits and those of his family, which he and his father raised to a degree
of splendour inferior only to that which attached to the crown,
VOL. I. L

Ii6 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

\npe out your injuries,, and utterly to destroy him, you
having justice upon your side. Have you not a noble
host of followers, all prepared to obey your behests?
What is there wanting but a bold heart ? and a great
undertaking once well begun may fairly be said to be
half finished/'

This cheering doctrine was extremely well-timed, for,
though bent upon the assertion of his claims, the duke
knew how to estimate enemies like Harold and the
Anglo-Saxons. His power of dissimulation, as we have
observed, was remarkable, even at an early age ; and it
is evident that, in this studied passion, he was testing the
disposition and sounding the real sentiments of those
around him. His t( emphasis of grief " was assumed to
rouse the attention and enlist the sympathies of the
Normans, to influence public opinion, and to prove how
cleeply he felt his presumed wrongs.

"When his well-feigned anger had exhausted itself, he
called a council of his lords and prelates at Rouen, and
with their concurrence despatched an embassy to Eng-
land to remind Harold of the sacred promise he had
made to support his ducal claims, and calling upon him
to resign the crown.

During this mission, William exhibited the sam<
^iixiety and impatience, though he must have anticipate
the nature of the reply of Harold • and he was doubt-
less actuated by the same motives of keeping the public
attention alive to his claims. He laid before his great
council the reply of Harold, purporting that the King
England held himself in no manner responsible to the
Duke of Normandy, but that he would willingly acknow-
ledge him for his friend and ally, provided he made n<

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 147

demands upon the crown ; in which event he declared
himself his mortal enemy.3

In addition to this council, William now summoned a
more special or privy council,, consisting of his magnates,
or chief vassals and prelates, all leading men devoted to
his interests, including Odo, bishop of Bayeux, Robert
Earl of Mortaine, the Count d'Eu, Roger de Montgomery,
Fitzosborne of Breteuil, the counts Longueville and
Guiffard, Roger de Beaumont and his sons, with other
intrepid and experienced leaders. The duke entered into
a full narrative of all that had passed between himself
and Harold, at the close of which he affected to submit
the question to their decision and to abide by a majority
of voices. " Sire ! " was the unanimous reply, " the affair
cannot remain in its present state. With God's help
prosecute the enterprise, and not one of us but will sup-
port you to the utmost with our swords and fortunes."
This last assurance must have been not a little consola-
tory to the duke, whose treasury, by dint of repeated wars
and insurrections, and the public works which he had
carried on, was not at that moment in the most nourish-
ing condition. Nor was the matter at issue a mere
question of succession, but of a. great and daring under-
taking, calling for immense resources, such as Normandy
in itself could not supply, and only to be accomplished
by putting it into the tempting form of a grand terri-
torial speculation, as well as of chivalrous adventure.

It was, as the duke declared, solely by a combination
of energies and means greater than any he had yet
developed that they could hope for success. For the
direction of these would be required consummate pru-

3 Mat. of West. ; Eadmer ; P. Pict. ; Hunie ; ;Henry ; Thierry ;
Sismondl

T 9

148 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

dence, activity, and statesmanlike genius, as well as
experienced soldiership; and of this truth no one was
more fully aware than the duke himself. But his cou-
rage rose with the emergency; he saw that he must
possess the sinews of war, for that by war alone he could
become a king. Its requisitions could not be defrayed
even by a general contribution of his own people. He
would require foreign support; and, having obtained the
consent of his council of chief prelates and barons, he
convoked the general states as a preliminary step to this
desirable object. These, too, met at Lillebonne, and the
meeting was of a most stormy and dissentient character.

It seemed as if the proposition for pecuniary aid, made
to the notables of the towns, to be afforded in the shape
of a new tax, had conjured up the spirit of discord,
which put forth its most convincing arguments to repu-
diate the idea of paying for the conquest of England.4
Royal taxes, argued some of the citizens, were a vile
and heathenish invention ; but duke's taxes, levied for
the conquest of new regions, were still more intolerable,
and not to be entertained for a moment.5

The duke took all in good humour, and by his energy
and eloquence succeeded in appeasing the tumult. It
was then proposed to pay in kind instead of money ;
that is, to supply him with the various munitions of war
at a certain estimate, in addition to vessels of war,
troops, and transports. The more refractory citizen
suggested that they should find quite enough to d(
to defend their own shores; while others decl
they had neither money nor means to pay in any shape ;
and a third party had an insurmountable objection

4 W. Pict. ; Eadmer ; Wace ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. Sa?
Chron. de Nor. 5 Ibid

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 149

all foreign broils. The gallant Fitzosborne, blushing
for the parsimony or pusillanimity of his fellow-subjects,
and eager to set a better example, hit upon an expedient
for reducing them to reason, declaring that he would
himself supply forty ships, and suggesting that every one
should subscribe something, have his name recorded,
and state the extent of his resources in a private inter-
view with the duke. This proposal had the desired
success ; the mercantile body could not with any grace
decline it, and William, finding that he made little pro-
gress by the usual measures, embraced the baron's
opportune expedient, and tried what he could effect by
separating the refractory body into its constituent parts.
He is said to have honoured each of the notables with
an interview ; when, exposed to the terrors of his voice
and frown, and unsupported by the collected body
which infuses so much courage into the individual mem-
bers, they were no longer able to refuse compliance with
his demands. The wealthiest were called upon first to
head the list ; the example of Fitzosborne, with his forty
ships, was followed by other loyal nobles ; and all ranks
ultimately became eager to have their names commemo-
rated in this great enterprise.

The earPs politic device was thus perfectly successful :
a loan of the easiest kind, guaranteed by foreign con-
quest, was in fact negotiated. The fire of emulation
spread from this meeting, which looked at first so
ominous, throughout all Normandy ; and the alarm of
war rung through the adjacent counties, states, and even
kingdoms, till Italy, Spain, and Germany, heard the
exciting notes, and adventurers began to pour in from
every side.

The fate of England trembled in the balance. How

150 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

best to promote the grand invasion became the favour-
ite topic of all ranks.6 Even Norman ladies, like
those of Sparta, invited sons and consorts to join the
banners of their conquering sovereign; and every country
around appeared eager to swell the already enormous
list, the papal power itself attaching its name for the
proscription of Harold and of Saxon England.

By a few only of William's enemies was this great
project ridiculed as a wild and impracticable under-
taking. Among these was the young king Philip of
France, his nominal suzerain, and his envious vassals
of Brittany and Anjou. But William now summoned
the latter, as their liege lord, to attend him in their
military capacity, at the same time holding out promises
of extensive grants, as an inducement to join his ban-
ners. He next proceeded to St. Germain, to hold an
interview with the haughty and envious Philip. With-
out reflecting on his own youth and inexperience, he
presumed to lecture the duke upon what he termed the
folly of such an expedition ; and when William explained
his plans and resources, instead of entering into his
views, he told him that he had better remain at home,
for he would find it quite as much as he could do to take
care of his own dominions. " I am well aware," was
William's reply, " that you stand in the position of my
suzerain ; and if you consent to support me, I will
acknowledge you lord paramount of England also. But
if not, I will not. But God will support the right,
and you will lose the most powerful vassal that a lord
sovereign ever boasted." 7

The young king then assembled a council, at which

6 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; W. Pict. ; Wace ; Ord. Vit.

7 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 151

it was resolved to grant no aid to the Normans, inas-
much as, owing to their great power/ they at all times
yielded reluctant fealty to their lieges ; and, should the
duke now succeed, they would become more refractory
than ever. Once King of England, the event would be
that William would lead the English against France,
and invade the kingdom of his lord as often as it pleased
him so to do. Nor were Philip's counsellors wrong in
their prediction, which was soon fulfilled to the letter.

At the termination of this council, which had so
completely unveiled the duke's future policy, he was
conducted by the king, " in a very irritated state of
mind," to his retinue ; and upon taking his leave he
observed, with marked emphasis : " If I should succeed
in my attempt, I shall consider myself bound only to
those who have assisted me/'9

William's next application was to his father-in-law,
the Earl of Flanders. This veteran statesman, who had
contrived to remain at peace and preserve his alliance
with opposite parties, looked upon the matter purely in
a mercantile light, and with a view to the influence it
might have on the value of his manufactures, corn, and
cattle. After mature deliberation, he is stated at first
to have declined holding any stake in the new adven-
ture. Upon being further urged, he declared that
he would only interfere on the condition of receiving a
carte blanche to fill up at his pleasure, as some compensa-
tion for the risks he might incur. To this modest pro-
posal, William, with the same reservation used by his
intended son-in-law, king Harold, pretended to submit,
and his considerate sire had the conscience to fill it up

8 W. of Malms. ; Ord. Vit. ; Wace ; W. Pict.

9 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; W. Pict. ; W. of Malms. ; Chron. de Nor.

152 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

with the sum of 3000 marks, to be paid yearly to the
Flemish court, in consideration of certain vessels and
troops to be supplied.1 Other accounts, however, state
that the duke refused to sanction these exorbitant de-
mands, informing the earl that he would send a written
answer to his request. Then, having taken a piece of
parchment, and carefully folded it without any contents,
he directed it with this superscription : <c Your income
from England shall amount exactly to what you find
written herein." Upon whatever terms, however, the
contract was subsequently made, it is certain that the
duke obtained a handsome supply both of men and ships
from Flanders.

William's embassy to the pope, conducted by his
favourite Lanfranc/ was attended with even greater
success. This he gained by having respectfully sub-
mitted his cause, in the first instance, to the judgment
of Rome, which Harold omitted to do, and was thereupon
declared a usurper by Alexander II., proceeding upon a
political maxim, uniformly observed by the papal see,
to pronounce sentence in favour of those who apply to
it against those who do not, without any regard to the
merits of the case.

Having thus " hallowed his enterprise in the eyes of
the world," William resolved to pursue it, in the face of
difficulties such as none but a great and heroic spirit
would have dared to encounter. It was not with a
cowardly dispirited people he was to contend. The long

1 Ord. Vit. ; W. Pict. ; W. of Malms. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron.
de Nor. "It was an expedition composed of various nations." — Hallam,
Hist, and Govern, of Europe, ii. 164.

2 Sir James Mackintosh, in his ably- written History of England, desig-
nates this prelate as " a man otherwise worthy of honours, but a creature
of William, and a slave to Rome." — Hist, of Engl. i. 107.;

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 153

and peaceful reign of Edward might possibly have ren-
dered the Saxon militia somewhat less formidable, but
still the general temper of the nation was warlike, nor
was the tranquillity of those times so profound as not to
afford them some occasions of exercising their valour,
in which they nobly maintained their ancient reputation.3
An English army raised by Edward had vanquished
Macbeth, and restored Malcolm Canmore to the king-
dom of Scotland.4 Another had very lately, and under
the command of Harold himself, subdued the Welsh.

Harold's navy was much superior to that of the Nor-
mans, both in the goodness of his ships and the qualities
of his sailors, as the Norman writers themselves acknow-
ledge. He was farther strengthened by a close alliance
with Denmark, being of the royal blood of that nation
by Githa his mother, who was sister to Swain or Sueno,
the then reigning king. This proximity naturally en-
deared him to all his subjects of Danish extraction, who
were still very numerous in some parts of England, and
was much more than a counterpoise to the ancient rela-
tion between the Danes and the Normans.5 We even
find that a considerable body of troops was sent to him
by his uncle, on the first alarm of an invasion designed
against him from Normandy. On the side of Wales or
of Scotland he had nothing to fear, the princes who
governed the Welsh being attached to his interests ; and

3 Lord Lyttleton, Life of Henry II. ; W. of Malms. ; W. Pict. ; Nouv.
Hist, de Nor.

4 Lord Lyttleton ; Dunelm ; Hoveden, 1054 ; W. of Malms, j Ingul-
phus ; Flor. Urgom. ; W. Pict. ; Ord. Vit.

5 Dunelm. sub. aim. 1064 ; W. Pict. Gest Gul. 198 ; Ord. Vit. 1. 3, 493 ;
Flor. Urgom. 635 ; sub. ann. 1067 ; Ord. Vit. 502 ; liii. ; S. Dunelm. de
Gest. R. A. 97 ; sub. ann. 10G7; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ;
Lord Lyttleton, passim ; Henry ; Hume ; Lingard ; Thierry ; Sismondi.

154 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

the Scotch, under Malcolm, who owed his crown to the
English, having contracted a league of friendship with
that nation, on which Harold might rely with security.
Among his own people there was no discontent to invite
or assist an invader. His government was so gracious 6
that, usurper as he was, his subjects would have learned
to love him. And, if we may judge from what occurred
in the reign of Edward, the Normans were of all
foreigners most odious to the English, whose animosity
against them/had appeared in national acts, and had
overpowered the inclination expressed by Edward in
their 'favour.7

When all these circumstances are considered, it may
well be affirmed that there is no enterprise recorded in
history more surprisingly bold than this of the Duke of
Normandy. But what in an ordinary person would be
culpable rashness, becomes in a great man only a proper
application of extraordinary talents. So strong was the
influence which the superior genius of this prince pos-
sessed over the Normans, that, as if he had animated
them with his own spirit, they voluntarily agreed to give
him the aid he desired &in this dangerous war, which
they were not bound to support in virtue of their tenures,
following him with no less alacrity than if it had been
their own quarrel. But, sensible of the danger of leav-
ing his dominions so destitute of military protection, he
provided against it by a league with the emperor Henry
the Fourth, a mighty and warlike prince, who engaged to
defend him as an ally of the empire against any invader.8

6 Lord Lyttleton, Life of Henry II., passim.

7 Lord Lyttleton, Life of Henry II., passim ; Ord. Vitales ; Gest. Gul.
Due. sub. an. 1066 ; W. of Malms. 1. iii. f. 56, sec. 30.

8 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. cle Nor. ; Chron. Sax.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 155

To crown the duke's successful labours, pope Alex-
ander gratified, with the repeated embassies, and still
more ample promises, which flattered him with the supre-
macy of the Holy See in the ecclesiastical government of
England, presented him with a consecrated banner and
a gold ring, in which was inclosed a precious gem, with
a lock of St. Peter's hair.9

So widely spread the fame of the duke's active prepa-
rations for the invasion of England, that astrology itself
seemed eager to take a share in the adventure, drawing
as largely as possible upon public credulity by the pre-
diction of its results. Its mysterious prognostics were
corroborated by the appearance of a comet with two
fiery tails,1 extending towards the south; by that unu-
sual phenomenon indicating, it might be supposed, the
approaching union between England and Normandy.
Within a few months William was enabled to assemble
a fleet of more than three thousand vessels, of all sizes,
and an army exceeding 60,000 men, select and well-
appointed troops, commanded by some of the first leaders
of the age. Vassals and volunteers alike flocked to his
standard; adventurers from the south vied with the
heads of the first families in Normandy and the adjacent
states.2 These contributed to form a separate body, and
to swell his veteran ranks.

9 W. of Malms. ; Speed ; Baker ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de
Nor. To such a height was the enthusiasm carried, that Norman strip-
lings were brought by their mothers and sweethearts to William's camp,
entreating that he would enlist them and permit them to enjoy some
brother's share (a military term of partnership) in the undertaking ; and
others were sent by princes from Italy, Spain, and Germany, with a like view.

1 Many Nverses were composed to commemorate the entree of this
glittering stranger, who appears to have troubled the people more than it
" perplexed monarchs" upon this eventful occasion.

2 Wace ; Bayeux Tapestry ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Thierry ; Sismondi.

156 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

The first appearance of the armament was at the
mouth of the river Dive. There also the duke received
a great accession of strength. Alan Fergant 3 arrived
at the head of 5000 men, and the Bretons were speedily
followed by other tributaries,, allured by the amount of
grants, pensions, places, or lands, dowers for their
daughters, and rich English heiresses for the more
adventurous bachelors. The rewards were apportioned
to their deserts ; to some was assigned a castle, to some
a town or domain, while others bargained for the hands
of those fair Saxon dames of whose substantial posses-
sions they had previously informed themselves. This
latter arrangement appears to have excited no small
jealousy in the breasts of the Norman ladies, and more
especially in those of higher rank, who were left to take
care of their houses. They were the only parties
excluded from the privilege of accompanying the Con-
queror, whose followers comprised even monks and
schoolmasters. More offices and appointments are
stated to have been given away in prospective than
could have been supplied by the forfeiture of all the
lands in England; but William was profuse of his
grants and gifts, in proportion to his expectations that
the number of claimants would be greatly reduced by
battle or other casualties, before the day when he should
be called upon to redeem his engagements.

Previously to joining his armament, William sum-
moned a council, at which he formally conferred upon
his consort Matilda the authority of duchess-regent,

3 The son of duke Hoel, who had succeeded Conan II., and de-
spatched these veteran'troops to Vv^illiam's assistance. Some of the Nor-
man chronicles contain very precise details, in quaint and often amusing
language, as to the particulars of this renowned expedition. — Nouv. Hist,
de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Wace.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 157

with the assistance of a council, of which Roger de
Beaumont was the president.4 The duchess and her
court were present ; and at the conclusion of the cere-
monies, turning towards his consort, the duke added :
" And let us not, lady, lack the benefit of your prayers,
nor those of your fair attendants, for the good success
of this our expedition." He is said also to have asso-
ciated his eldest son Robert, then a youth of fourteen,
with the duchess in the regency, assisted by the pre-
lates and barons in council, to whom he had committed
so responsible a trust.

After being detained a month in the Dive by contrary
winds, the whole fleet succeeded in reaching the harbour
of St. Valery.5 Still it could not make sail, and so
many obstacles occurred in addition to the adverse
elements, that the bravest began to doubt, and the duke
was compelled to have recourse to his old expedient of

4 W. Pict. ; W. of Malms. ; Wace ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor.

5 During William's stay at St. Valery, some English spies, whom king
Harold had sent to discover the power of the duke, were taken. When
they were brought before him, he addressed them in these words :
" Your lord might well have spared this charge. He needed not to have
cast away his money to learn what he will soon feel more speedily than
he expects. Tell him from me, if he meet me not hi the place where he
thiuks he may most safely set his foot before the end of this year, he
need never fear danger from me while he lives." Some of his nobles,
expressing their apprehensions of Harold's power : " I am glad to hear
this opinion of his great prowess ; the greater shall our glory be in pre-
vailing against him. But I see right well that I have small cause to fear
his discovery of our strength, when you, who are so near me, can discern
so little. Rest yourselves upon the justice of your cause, and the fore-
sight of your commander. Who hath less than he who can justly term
nothing his own ? I know more of his weakness than ever he shall know
of my strength till he feel it. Perform you your parts like men, and he
shall never be able to disappoint either my assurance or your hopes." —
Hayward, Lives of Nor, Kings.

158 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

re-assuring the minds of the weak and wavering, by a
fresh appeal to their ignorance and superstition. With
this powerful engine, so successfully employed by all
great leaders, not excepting Cromwell and Napoleon,
he succeeded in reviving their slackened zeal. He
reasonably inferred that the wind, having blown so long
from one quarter, was not unlikely to change, and he
proclaimed another religious ceremony, at which the
entire armament was to attend, to invoke the aid of all
their tutelary saints.

It is singular how well he timed these public acts of
devotion, and how speedily they were followed, as in
this instance, by the desired success.6 Some of his ves-
sels had already been beaten back, others lost; and in
this dilemma he was fortunate enough, as it is reported,
to be accosted by a certain holy man, who inquired why
he looked so downcast, and what it was he wanted. " I
want a fair wind," was the duke's laconic reply. " Then
why," rejoined the stranger, " address you not your
prayers to Monseigneur Saint Valery ; and he will send
you a fair wind, and all else you need." At this com-
fortable assurance the duke instantly ordered a public
procession to take place in honour of the saint, accom-
panied by all his relics, and his body itself, which was
conveyed from the adjacent abbey. These were exhi-
bited to the view of the whole army, extended upon a

6 In fact, William was compelled to adopt some expedient or other,
as there was no time to be lost. Both the soldiers and sailors began to
murmur, and the complaints were daily becoming louder. Many com-
pared him to his ancestor, Robert the Devil, whose fate it was, they said,
like all of his family, to be continually aiming at higher things than
he could achieve, and still finding God his adversary. — W. Pict. j W. of
Malms. ; Wace ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 159

clotli of gold, and a universal prayer was then offered
up. The saint's body was laid upon a shrine encased in
silver, with all the rich oblations offered by princes and
prelates to propitiate him in their cause.7

Considering how long the wind had blown from the
same quarter, we may believe, without much astonish-
ment, that it changed on the ensuing evening. It was
the eve of Saint Michael, the tutelary saint of Nor-
mandy, and all parties, we are assured, embarked with
the utmost ardour, after so decided a manifestation in
their favour. "We have a full and particular account, by
the contemporary and other chroniclers,8 of the different
trades and professions, with artists and artisans of every
class, not excepting numbers of monks and lay clergy,
who accompanied the grand expedition.

William was assembling his vassals previously to
hoisting sail, when he was agreeably surprised by the
arrival of his fair consort in a noble and well-built
vessel, constructed at her own expense, and of which she
made him an unexpected and welcome present. Besides
its grand proportions, it was decorated in a style of
princely splendour, equalled only by its power of sailing.
Upon its prow it bore the effigy of their second son,
William, his face directed towards England, with a
trumpet at his mouth, and bearing a bow with the
arrow drawn to the head.9 Upon its approach, acclama-
tions which rent the air burst forth from the combined
fleet ; and scarcely had the duchess greeted her loving
lord, when, as if auspicious of victory, a breeze sprung

; 7 Nouv. Hist. ; M. of West. ; Chron. de Nor.

8 Chron. de Nor. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. Sax. ; W. Pict. ;
W. of Malms. ; Wace. 9 Ibid.

160 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

up, and the duke, leading the way in his gallant vessel,
ordered his blood-red flag to be hoisted throughout the
whole armament,

So great was the speed of the Mir a that she quite
outstripped the rest of the fleet. At dawn not a
vessel was to be seen ; and William, ordering the crew
to slacken sail, bade the master ascend the top-mast
and report the distance of the squadron left behind.
" What is it you see ?" inquired the duke.
" Nothing yet, but sea and sky."
" Look out sharply ! What see you now?"
" I can see a few small specks afar off." And in a
little time he added, " I can now see a forest of tall
masts under a heavy press of sail." l

Rejoined by his fleet, William proceeded without
farther obstacle, and arrived next day in the bay of
Pevensey, on the Sussex coast, September 28th, 1066.
So great was his impatience to effect a landing unop-
posed, that, advancing first among the archers, he
leaped upon the shore. His foot slipping as he touched
the land, he fell ; 2 but with the same presence of mind

1 W. Pict. ; W. of Malms. ; Thierry ; Wace ; Hist, de Nor.

2 One of his poetic chroniclers has celebrated this historic trait in the
following verses : —

" Quand li dus, princes fors issi
Sour sus peaumes avant chai,
Sempre y ont leal grand cri
Et disoient tuit. Mai signe a chill,
Et il lour en a haut crii,
Seigneurs par la resplendeur de
La terre ag o deux mains saiseet,
Sans chalenge, ni ert m'es guerpu,
Tout es votre qu'auque y a."

Wace ; Ord. Vit. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 161

displayed by the great Julius/ he grasped the earth with
both his hands, crying with a loud voice, " By the splen-
dour of the earth, I have seized England with both my
hands I" and he sprung up with a joyous countenance,
thus addressing himself to the earls and knights who
followed him: "You know, my lords, that without
challenge no good prize can be made, and that which I
have seized, I will with your help maintain ; for in that
case God has surely appointed me to conquer. He who
shall impugn it, or say nay, let him do battle with me."4
A Norman knight, seizing the duke's idea to turn the
accident into a happy omen, and reinspire the troops,
who exclaimed that it was an evil sign, ran to a cottage
near at hand, and, taking some of the thatch, exclaimed,
" See, Sire ; I give you seizin of this land, with promise
that ere a month you shall be lord over it." " I accept
it," was the duke's reply, ' ' and may God aid the right ! "
Farther to refresh the spirits of his army, and to
remove any sinister impressions, the duke ordered
ample rations to be served out after a landing was
effected ; and, having pitched his tent upon the beach,
he sat down with his lords and knights to eat his dinner,
and drink success to their arrival in England.5 One
of the duke's first measures, however, was to despatch
some flying squadrons to ascertain the state of the sur-

3 It is recorded of Julius Caesar that, on alighting from shipboard in
Africa, his foot slipped, and he fell in the same manner. He also averted
the omen, and turned it to good account, by exclaiming, " Africa, I hold
thee fast." — Vestig. Ang.

4 The archers and knights landed first of all. Next came the soldiers ;
then carpenters, armourers, and masons, their tools in their hands — •
saws, planes, axes, £c., slung over their shoulders, besides a number of
pioneers and handicraftsmen. — Wace ; Ord. Vit.

5 It was some time before Harold heard of the duke's arrival.
VOL. I. M

162 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

rounding country before he encamped. Perceiving no
signs of the enemy, he ordered fires to be lighted, and
preparations to be commenced for encamping for the
night. During the dinner he is said to have made
inquiries regarding two ships which were missing.
These were lost in a violent gale, and on board of one
of them was the astrologer, who had predicted a safe
passage and no opposition upon the part of Harold.
On hearing his fate, the duke sarcastically remarked,
" He is indeed an ass who pretends to tell others what
will happen to them,6 when ignorant how near at hand
his own fate may be:" William had, for some time, been
in anxious expectation of tidings respecting the grand
expedition from Denmark, simultaneous with his own,
and four days after his arrival he heard of Harold's
victory at Stamford Bridge. Such a victory, however,
was almost as fatal as a defeat, and places the policy of
his great adversary in a still stronger point of view ; for
the invasion of Tostig and the Dane, just preceding his
own, was more than enough to decide the fate of
Harold.7

The wily Norman employed bis allies, as the Turkish
janissaries use their prisoners in the onset of the battle,
to impair the vigour, and thin the numbers of their
enemies; and thus it was with Harold's army, whicl
had to encounter the fresh veteran hosts of Normandy,
and of half Europe. William invariably avoided
battle when it was in the power of the enemy to offe
it ; he wished to fight only when he could avail himsel
of some error, and thus reduce the chances of battlt

6 Wace ; Thierry ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Prevost ; Henderson.
' W. of Malms. ; W. Pict. ; Sim. Dunelm ; H. Hunt ; Wace ; He
derson.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 163

to something nearer certainty. Upon being informed
of the approach of Harold, at the head of his victorious
army, he is said to have observed, " You see that our
astrologer is again wrong, for we must have a battle
after all. Should I obtain the victory, upon that spot
I vow to build and dedicate a church to the blessed
Trinity. There shall be offered up perpetual prayers
for the soul of good king Edward, for my own soul,
for that of my consort Matilda, and for the souls of all
who have followed us, and may die in this expedition."8
With this additional example of the policy which
regulated the whole tenor of his conduct, the duke,
having cheered his followers, proceeded to cut off then-
last chance of escape, leaving them no safety except in
victory. He ran his vessels into deep water, and there
scuttled them, so as to render them quite useless for
the immediate purpose of a home voyage. By some
historians, it is asserted that he actually set fire to his
whole fleet ; but so useless a sacrifice was not at all to
be expected from a prince who prized possession of the
means of war so highly as William. He next selected
an advantageous position for the site of a wooden for-
tress, to retreat upon in case of need, the materials of
which he had brought in his ships. Having put them
together, he fortified and placed in it a strong garrison.
On the ensuing day he reviewed his troops, making
them go through the different evolutions which he meant
to employ, as if it were the rehearsal of some interest-
ing and eventful drama; and amongst these was the
feigned retreat, afterwards so successfully practised, and
which was one of his favourite stratagems.

8 Thierry ; Sismondi ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Wace;
Prevost ; Henderson ; Hayward ; Chron. Sax. ; S. Dunelm.

M 2

164 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

The position he had taken up lay between Pevensey
and Hastings/ and was admirably adapted for a general
action, especially for the evolutions of his Norman
horse. For a period of ten days not a single enemy
appeared. The exigency of Harold's affairs had not
permitted him to maintain another army such as that
he had led into the north ; and one unsuccessful battle
upon the coast would go far to decide the fate of the
country. Without such an advantage, it was not the
policy of William to advance farther into the country ;
he waited calmly for Harold's approach ; and in nothing
was the judgment of this admirable commander more
conspicuous than in leaving nothing undone which
human prudence can provide : hence the confidence
with which at the last hour he uniformly gave battle.
The moment the pressure of circumstances left him
no other means of attaining his object, and not till
then, did he risk his fortune upon a single cast.

It was such foresight which engaged the support of
Tostig and the descent of Halfager, before he sailed
from St. Valery and fought the battle of Hastings.
Nor was this all — he threatened Harold both by land and
sea from a number of different points at the same time,
so as completely to distract his attention. Thus was a
free passage left to the Normans, whom his concen-
trated forces either military or naval would have been
sufficient to overwhelm, to blockade them, or to disperse
at sea. Such an invasion, then, against so powerful an

9 It is recorded by Ordericus Vitalis that William erected the castle
of Pevensey upon the spot where his army landed before the battle of
Hastings ; and that it was intended as a place of retreat to the Nor-
mans, in case they had been defeated.— Hist. Ang. ; Ducarel Monas. ;

Vestig. Ang. ;

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 165

enemy, afforded ample scope for the display of general-
ship on a grand scale.

The rebel Tostig and the Dane, having united their
forces, overthrown the earls Morcar and Edwin, and
taken York, were directing their march upon the
capital, when they were intercepted by Harold, routed,
and both slain. Their fleet also fell into the hands
of the victorious king, on the 25th of September, 1066.

But instead of waiting a sufficient time to refresh
and re-inforce his gallant army, he advanced eagerly
towards the invader, who received private intelli-
gence " that in four days the king would make his
appearance at the head of 60,000 veteran troops.
It was added that William would do well to consult his
safety and retire in all haste to Normandy .3n The
duke sent a reply " that he was come into England,
not to run away but to fight if need be, and that, had
he only 10,000 men left, he would accept battle." To
show how much he was in earnest, and to set an exam-
ple to his army, he omitted no occasion of sharing either
peril or fatigue. In making a reconnoissance at the
head of a detachment, he observed that Fitzosborne
complained of the weight of his armour.2 William

' l It was sent by a Norman earl, who had been long resident in
England ; and the son of an English lady named Gymanare, who held a
correspondence with the duke.

2 In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the heavy-linked mail of the
Normans, with the close helmet or skull-cap, fastened under the chin and
leaving the face exposed, encased the whole body, and required both
great strength and endurance to bear during a protracted battle or
long campaign. The warriors of a later period, down to the fourteenth
century, were clad in more convenient and more beautiful armour. Yet
not a few of the latter were early exhausted, and sometimes worn out, at
the age of fifty, by the wear and tear upon the constitution, especially of
regular campaigners, like the Henries and Edwards, few of whom survived
to old age.

166 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

desired his attendants to take it off and place it over
his own, and thus doubly laden rode back to his tent
through the ranks of his applauding countrymen.

Still desirous, if possible, to ascend the English
throne without increasing the national animosity by
shedding blood, the duke left no means untried to
settle the question before involving the two nations in
war. He first despatched a monk,3 in whom he had con-
fidence, to remind Harold of the oaths he had taken to
support him in his succession to the kingdom left to
him by his relative king Edward. He implored him
not to disgrace Christianity by employing fire and sword,
and shedding the blood of the innocent for the guilty.
Incensed beyond control, Harold was on the point of
striking the presumptuous monk, as he was proceeding
to explain his master's object, and to inculcate its
acceptance upon the king, had he not been restrained
by his brother Gurth, Earl of York, who motioned the
good father to retire.

Harold then sent an embassy to William in his turn,
and the messenger was immediately introduced into the
duke's presence. "What is Harold's will?" inquired
the duke. " For this am I sent by king Harold to the
duke of Normandy. He bids you not to count upon any
promise he may have made when a captive,4 but to with-
draw from the kingdom, upon which condition king
Harold will agree to repair your ships. If not, he will
come and give you battle, should you be rash enough

3 Hugh Mairgot, of Fecamp, In conformity with the wants, as well
as fashion, of the, times, the monks were then the ambassadors, being
generally the only^parties who could read or write.

4 It was~opposed to received usage for any monarch to make donation
of the crown ; and it seems strange that an exception should have been
made in favour of William. Was it not rather made by the Norman
historians after him ?— See Haddon MSS., B. M.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 167

to bide his coming."3 "Tell him," was William's reply,
<c that I shall expect him in the open plain ; and he
shall know me by the colours I bear." He then pre-
sented to the ambassador a noble charger, a rich
embroidered robe, and forty gold florins ; a proof that
he was in no want of money. It is recorded by some
historians 6 that Harold proposed to purchase his retreat
by large sums,, as had been the custom with regard to
the Danes ; but that his oifer was rejected by William
with marks of disdain. " Tell earl Harold that I did
not bring so many crown pieces into the country to
barter them for shillings ; " being a sarcastic play upon
the two words ecus and esterUm?

It has been generally asserted that Harold was
advised by his brother Gurth not to stake his crown
upon the issue of a single battle/ but to prolong the
war. He would thus possess many advantages over
his adversary ; and, in the event of his determining upon
a general engagement, he ought, nevertheless, to avoid
exposing his own person in the first encounter. Ample
resources, it was argued, were at his command, while
William on the other hand had cut off his own retreat.
At the head of an army composed of veteran soldiers
and experienced leaders, king Harold should avoid risk-
ing all upon a single die, but seek to exhaust and
harass the enemy, till he was enabled to attack with
sure promise of success. This could be effected by
calling forth the strength of the country, and carrying
on a system of desultory warfare, while, in consequence

5 Nouv.Hist. de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Duchesne ; W. Pick; Wace.

6 Ibid.

7 W. of Malms. ; M. of West. ; Wace ; Nouvelle Hist, ^de Nor. ;
Chron. de Nor. 8 W. of Malms.

168 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

of the ravages which such an invader would necessarily
commit, all parties would fly to Harold's support, and
William, by advancing, would compromise the safety of
his own army.

Deaf, however, to these remonstrances, and animated
by his courage and previous good fortune,9 Harold
having obtained some reinforcements, adopted the fatal
resolution of attacking his powerful enemy. He could
not place the same reliance on the militia and the free
bands as on his own veteran soldiers. For this reason,
he was, perhaps, not so anxious to increase his numbers
as, had he been aware how admirably they would fulfil
their duty to their country, he would otherwise have
been. These were principally the men of London,
Kent and Sussex, who twice made the enemy turn
their backs, and who, but for the manoeuvres of their
too skilful opponent, would have driven his veteran
Normans into the sea.

At the distance of about seven miles1 from the Nor-
man camp, king Harold took up a position which he
fortified with strong entrenchments. It was well
chosen, and its natural defences were such as to pro-
tect it from attacks of the Norman horse, an arm in
which Harold was wholly deficient, as well as in bow-
men, relying upon the solid masses of his infantry,
armed with sword and battle-axe. His fortifications
were so constructed as completely to prevent them
from being surrounded or outflanked by the enemy,

9 Harold was brother-in-law to king Edward, and to the two great
earls, Edwin and Morcar ; father-in-law to Bliden, Prince of Wales ; and
nephew to Swain, King of Denmark. — Haddon MSS., B.M.

1 Some Norman and English writers state the distance at only five
miles.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 169

insomuch that, if they had only held their ground with-
out breaking order in the pursuit, as their leader
repeatedly inculcated, the Normans must have forced
positions almost impregnable, before they could claim
the victory.

In the centre of the three great outlets from the
wooden ramparts which he had raised in front of his
position, so as to admit of ample sorties while they
confined the enemy's attacks, king Harold planted the
English standard. Having completed his arrangements,
turning towards his brother, he expressed a wish
to reconnoitre the Norman encampment. Mounting
their swiftest steeds, attended with a strong escort, they
advanced so close as to observe the duke's most minute
arrangements, even up to his very tent and the sur-
rounding pavilions. " What admirable order ! and
what numbers ! " exclaimed Gurth ; and it is added
that, struck with the justice of this remark, Harold
was disposed to change his own plans,2 and consulted
with his brother upon the expediency of retiring upon
London; a supposition, however, scarcely consistent with
this brave king's previous character and conduct. " You
should have adopted that line of policy before," was his
brother's reply ; ' ' it is too late now. Retreat would be
a flight, and carry consternation through all your ranks. "
Upon their return, Harold despatched spies to ascertain
as nearly as possible the numbers of the enemy. They
were arrested and brought before the duke. Instead
of condemning them to punishment, William ordered
them to be conducted through his camp, to be supplied
with refreshments, and to report what they had seen to
their master, whose apprehensions were by no means

2 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Duchesne.

170 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

allayed by all that he heard. It was observed that
there were more priests in the duke's camp than soldiers
in king Harold's army ; a piece of intelligence which
must have been more surprising than gratifying to the
clergy of the Anglo-Saxon church. But, fortunately for
them, it appears that these supposed ecclesiastics were
the duke's archers and cross-bowmen, who, having their
heads close shaven in the Norman style, had been mis-
taken by Harold's spies for members of the priesthood.
Whether sincere or only desirous to save appearances,
the duke for some time persisted in his efforts to effect
some kind of compromise with Harold. He sent
another deputation, bearing three distinct propositions ;9
first, that Harold should surrender the crown, upon
certain conditions to be submitted to him on the ad-
mission of such ground of negotiations; secondly, to
make the holy pontiff, Alexander II., arbiter of the
differences between them ; thirdly, to decide their re-
sp active claims by single combat, so as to avoid the
effusion of so much blood.4

3 " It were a very presumptuous thing for me/' says king Harold, in
his answer to one of the duke's messages, which charges him with his
breach of oath, "to have sworn away to you another's inheritance
(meaning the kingdom), without the general convention and decree of
the Senate and people." This shows that the kingdom could not be
disposed of without the consent of the states. — Haddon MSS., B. M.

4 The conditions of the duel were, that he who conquered should
possess the kingdom after putting his adversary to death, unless he
surrendered and cried out merci for his life. This proposal was by no
means palatable to king Harold, who, without the slightest imputation
upon his personal valour, quite as daring and chivalrous as the duke's,
would have been placing himself upon an inequality, in thus risking a
crown of which he was in possession. Besides, according to the prevalent
superstition of the day, having broken his promises to the duke, he might
shrink from staking the fortunes of the nation on his personal merits and

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 171

It was supposed that the last of these propositions
would have been eagerly accepted by king Harold, who
might thus have deprived his enemy of any superiority
he possessed in the numbers and discipline of his
veteran army. The chances with reference to their
relative forces were evidently against him. The Nor-
man historians maintain that Harold's courage/ till
then unquestionable, was damped by the injustice of
his cause, in addition to which some weight may be
allowed to the splendid reputation acquired by the
duke in feats of arms, which, after his overthrow of
the Earl of Anjou, ranked the highest, perhaps, of any
in Europe.6

William, upon the rejection of these propositions,
called his council of great barons, and declared that,
his different letters and messages having been all
employed in vain, he was desirous of acquainting them
with his intention of holding a personal communica-
tion with Harold himself. " I will yet try what I can
do by seeing and speaking to himself. I wish to con-
vince him of the guilt of perjury, the punishment of
which he is about to bring upon his own head, should
he longer refuse to perform his sacred promise. Nay,
if he would listen to reason, I would consent that he
should retain the entire country of Northumberland,
up to the borders of Scotland itself/''7

5 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Duchesne ; W. Pict.

6 Among other invaluable treasures contained in the Tower, was re-
cently to be seen in the armoury what is stated to have been the duke's
coat of arms. This, from its size and weight, must have been worn by a
man of great strength and lofty stature. It is of the same form and
workmanship as the specimens which are shown at the British Museum
as having belonged to Francis I., to Rodolph of Habsburg, and other
doughty knights of their day.

7 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Walsiugham ; Wace.

172 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Though much cannot be said, we fear, for William's
sincerity in making these propositions, they certainly
do credit to his tact and judgment. It was attempting
to throw upon Harold the odium of a devastating war.
It was holding forth to the world that, rather than
wade to a throne through a sea of blood, than risk the
fearful consequences by which such a war must inevit-
ably be followed, he preferred to offer any terms which
honour and justice would admit. Nay, he delayed to
attack his adversary, who was daily gaining fresh
strength, and to whom time was more precious than
the reinforcements he continued to receive. The
baronial council approved of his motives, but earnestly
entreated that whatever he did should be done promptly,
as the militia and volunteers were pouring into Harold's
camp every hour.8 " Upon my honour, as a soldier,"
was the duke's reply, " if I fail to gain over Harold as a
friend in this interview, the battle shall be fought
to-morrow."9

Accompanied by only twenty knights, the duke then
mounted his charger, and rode at speed towards the
English camp. Immediately in his rear, however, there
followed a hundred Norman knights, attended by one
thousand men at arms, who never lost sight of their
prince's person. When he had reached the farthest
barrier, noting well the excellent position and its
defences, he sent a messenger to Harold's tent, appris-
ing him of his arrival, and his extreme desire to hold
parley with him in the open field, bringing with him
such lords and retainers as he might deem fit. He
begged him not to entertain the least suspicion, as his

," 8 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Walsirigham ; Wace.

9 Hist, de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor.; W. Pict. ;
Wace.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 173

sole desire was to come to some arrangement advan-
tageous to them both. Harold's brother, Gurth, received
the envoy ; but was instructed to send him back with
sharp words, declaring that the king refused to speak
with the duke in the open plain, and that if the latter
had any further conditions to offer, he should send them
by letter, and the king would know how to answer
them.1

This uncourteous reply being reported to the duke,
who considered it in the light of an ultimatum, he
declared " that he had left nothing undone to avert the
dread appeal to arms," the fatal consequences of which
no one was better able to predict than himself.

Harold, on his side, summoned his chief lords and
officers, to whom he reported the last propositions made
by William for their final deliberation. These conveyed
the offer of Northumberland, and the whole country
bounded by the river Humber, comprehending the
greater portion of the county of York ; a generous con-
cession, perhaps, under all the circumstances, but to
which there was one fatal objection, that of disposing of
territories which did not then belong to him. To the
earl, his brother, he guaranteed the whole of the land
and seignories held by the late earl Godwin, a liberality
which shows how highly he estimated the character of
Gurth, and the influence he exercised in the country.
Failing Harold's acceptance of these propositions, duke
William would declare him to be a perjurer, false to his
word and honour. A strong discussion ensued, which
was closed by Gurth, who, in an emphatic address,
declared for war, "from a conviction," he said, "that, if

1 Hist, de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; W. Pict. ;
Wac3.

174 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Harold ceded the crown, William would soon deprive
him of the dominion now so prodigally offered ; for that
he plainly saw, if admitted into the country, the Nor-
mans would first seize upon their estates ; next on their
wives and daughters ; and, thirdly, take the goods and
chattels out of their houses/1'

" You hear my brother," exclaimed Harold, " and I
agree with him that it is our solemn duty to defend our
families and ourselves; if we succeed, we shall reap
immortal honour, and, instead of being deprived of all,
you will receive each a fortune at my hands " '' These
sentiments were responded to by the nobles, who declared
that they would fight to the last for their country ; nay,
exterminate the whole Norman people before they would
yield ; 3 and Harold finally announced to duke William
their united resolution to submit the award to the God
of battles.

Duke William now issued orders to prepare for en-
counter4 on the morrow. Brief and anxious was the
interval ; and it is believed to have been more seriously
employed by the Normans than by the English. This
was owing to the character and policy of the Norman
leader, not to any peculiarities in the disposition of the
two people themselves. It was a grand occasion upon
which to display the religious pomp and circumstance
which formed part of his system, and entered both into
his military and his political calculations.5 Full of difii-

2 " Et vous recevrez de moi des biens en abondance." — Duchesne ;
Hist, de Nor. 3 Ibid.

4 It was fought on Saturday, the 14th October, 1066, Harold's birth-
day, at a spot called Heathfield, seven miles from Hastings, where the
town of Battle stands. — Lives of the Queens of England.

5 His Norman contemporaries, adopting the same ideas, tried to fix a
charge of irreligion upon the English people. Vce victis seems to have

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 175

culties and perils as had been his active and stormy
career, never at any juncture had he played for so vast
a stake ; for one which equally demanded all his efforts
— all the genius and resources of his fertile mind. A
people triumphant over the Danes, the Scotch, the
Welsh, and all invaders for upwards of a century, was
to be struck down and subdued by force. That people
was now more powerful than at any former period of
its history.

Intrepid and confident as he was, ample grounds
existed for William's anxiety to treat even with one
whom he at the same time stigmatised as false and per-
jured ; and the result showed that his ineffectual efforts
to conciliate the English were founded upon sound
policy ; for, the sword once unsheathed, Hastings was, in
fact, only the commencement of a long exterminating
war between the two nations, which continued up to the
period when Normandy was annexed to France. The
battle fought at Heathfield was only one of a series of
efforts in defence of our national independence and con-
stitutional freedom.6 The alternation of invasions, also,
during these incessant struggles, was mutual ; England
retook Normandy, and for a century and a half both
people gathered equally bitter fruits from the stern
feudal system established over them. Thus the mild
beneficent government of Normandy was converted into
a reign of terror over both countries, in the hands of a
military oppressor and of his immediate descendants, till
the unnatural and bloody compact, made by usurping
ambition, was for ever broken.

been the motto employed by them in the base, ungenerous strictures cast
upon the English after the Conquest. Thus they were called barbarians
at the battle of Hastings. — W. Pict. <\ Duchesne, fol. ed.p. 202; Ord. Vit.
6 History of England, by Sir J. Mackintosh, vol. i.

176 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

But William was not the less resolved because he knew
that he must engage in a lengthened and destructive
war, in addition to those civil conflicts which had so
long wasted the resources of his native land. When
he ordered prayers to be recited throughout the whole
camp, and leaders, knights, and soldiers to attend
confession, shrive, and prepare for battle, he felt
that no common struggle was approaching ; and that
thousands of claimants upon the lavish promises he
had made would cancel their bonds in the general
carnage, before next set of sun.

The priests, with croziers in their hands, and reading
their litanies, went through all the ranks, and visited
all the positions and outposts of his mighty host. Even
after giving orders to his several leaders, the duke's last
public act, previously to the onset, was, as usual with
him, a religious one. Odo, bishop of Bayeux, cele-
brated mass before the entire army, and invited them
to join him in a vow, never more to eat flesh on the
anniversary of that day ; a requisition with which, with
the awful chances before them, men of all ranks were
easily induced to comply.

The leaders on both sides, apprehensive of a night
attack, ordered strict watch and ward to be observed;
each was cautious to visit his outposts in person. The
English are described, by nearly all the Norman chro-
niclers, as having passed the night in riot and disorder ;
but we are bound to receive such an assertion, originat-
ing with their enemies, though repeated by most subse-
quent English writers, with some degree of caution.7
It is most probably one of the calumnies of exulting
victory; and, had king Harold won the day, nothing

7 W. of Malms. ; W. Pict. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 177

would have been recorded of the orgies celebrated the
preceding evening in the Anglo-Saxon camp.8 It is
asserted that the English sought to sustain their
courage by riotous excesses; that they were heard
shouting wassail and drink heal, "wish health/' and
" drink health/' amidst scenes of intemperance and
confusion, worthy only of barbarians. By some writers
it is even added that they were intoxicated during
the action, and that they fought more like beasts than
men.9

By dawn of day, the Norman army was drawn out in
battle array, and "William took his station on a small
eminence, in front of his position, having the relics, it
is said, on which Harold had forsworn himself, round
his neck, and with the consecrated standard unfurled
by his side. " It is not only to acquire a kingdom/' he
began, " that I brought you hither, O gallant Normans,
the first of men, the most renowned for victory over
thrice your numbers, far over the deep sea. No ! for,
while your devotion to my cause deserves my warmest
gratitude, it is to punish the English for the murders
and misdeeds committed by them. Did they not slay in
cold blood the young prince Alfred, the brother of their
deceased king ? Did they not, by treason, rise and mas-
sacre the Danes throughout the breadth of the land, even
at public festivals to which they invited their victims ;
and does not the blood of your ancestors cry for ven-
geance from the ground ? There, before you, stand the
malefactors awaiting their sentence; such crimes de-
serve death ; and it is for you to execute it at the point
of the sword. By victory, O Normans ! you will

8 Wace ; Chron. de Nor.

9 W. Pict. ; W. of Malms. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Wace.
VOL. I. N

178 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

obtain vengeance, fortune, spoil; yea, spoil beyond
your hopes : by defeat certain death ; for no bravery
nor conduct of mine can save you from that igno-
minious fate ; there are no ships, and nothing is left but
to assure yourselves of the protection of Heaven, and
in that to confide and conquer.

" If / become king of England, you will be the owners
of the land. Before you is the son of that Godwin,
who was charged with the murder of my unhappy
cousin. You only can avenge me. Oh, remember the
glorious actions of our ancestors — the conquest of
Sicily — your own exploits against Henry of France,
and his greatest allies; and then think of all the
treasures which this country will aiford you. You are
in a hostile country, unknown to you, and must
make it yours ; for before you is the sword, the vast
ocean behind, and no place of retreat ; so that, if you
will not contend for glory, you must fight for life/' '

William had drawn up his army in three divisions,
and now gave orders for the attack.2 While putting on
his armour, the squires in their haste placed the back
of his cuirass before,3 upon which, observing that they
regarded it as an evil omen, he jested upon the matter.
" I have seen many who would scarcely have ventured
into the field, on account of a mere error like this ;
but I never believed in omens, nor in fortune-telling,
nor in divinations of any kind. My trust is in God
only; and, if this mistake dishearten you, I will give

1 Sir J. Mackintosh, Hist, of Eng. ; Hayward ; Chron, de Nor. apud
Bouguet, xiii. 230-1 ; W. Pict.

2 During this interval, the great prelates,' Odo, bishop of Bayeux, and
Goisfred, of ^Coutances, were busy lining their purses, by receiving con-
fessions, bestowing benedictions, and imposing penances not a few. —
Hist, de Nor.; Wace. 3 W. Pict. ; Wace ; W. Malms.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 179

you cause for joy ; for if it betoken anything, it is
that the power of my dukedom shall be made a king-
dom, and that I, who was a duke, shall be a king."4
Again, he observed to the different leaders and nobles
before entering the field : " To-day, assuredly my fortune
will change ; and I shall be a king, or nothing, before
nightfall."

The grand consecrated banner was immediately
advanced. Hollo de Terni, Earl of Conches, was the
ducal standard-bearer by old hereditary claim ; and the
duke, inviting him to take charge of it, said : " You
carry it in right of your birth, and I shall never deprive
you of it." That lord, however, as well as Guiffard,
Count de Longueville, having declined the honour, upon
the plea of more active duties, it was entrusted to the
hands of Toustain du Blanc, lord of Bee Crespin. 5
The duke then called for his favourite steed, the famous
Bayard, which had been presented to him by the King
of Spain, on occasion of the Earl of Longueville return-
ing from his pilgrimage to St. Jago of Compostella.
Extending his hand to take the reins of his noble
charger, as he is represented in the Bayeux tapestry,6
he vaulted into the saddle, while all around him
expressed their admiration of his martial appearance
and splendid horsemanship, as the fiery Bayard pranced
and curvetted under his princely burden.7 " Where,"
cried the Count de Touzay, " shall we see a knight so
fairly armed, who bears himself so nobly; carries his

4,.Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; W. Pict. ; Wace. 5 W. Pict. 127.

6 For an interesting account of the Bayeux tapestry, in which queen
Matilda stitched the history of the Conquest, we refer the reader to Miss
Strickland's admirable and amusing " Lives of the English Queens."

7 Wace ; Chron. de Nor.

180 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

.heavy arms so lightly, or couches his lance with so
much grace. Let him fight and he will overcome, and
shame befall him who shall fail him at need/'

A shout of exultation welcomed him as he rode along
the ranks ; 8 and the spectacle of two such armies, led
by the most warlike and experienced generals of their
age, has been described, by contemporary historians, as
grand and imposing in the extreme. They were now
in sight of each other ; and the flower of European
chivalry9 was there assembled, the arbiter of empire
upon that memorable battle-ground. Veterans and
volunteers of different states composed the bulk of the
ducal army, in which the great predominance of knights,
nobles, and princes, was the distinguishing feature.
Of the first of his three corps William gave the com-
mand to Roger de Montgomery, and to Fitzosborne,
Count de Breteuil ; of the second, to Geoffrey Martel,
attended by Hugues, a German prince of high repute,
and some Norman leaders of known skill. The duke
placed himself at the head of the third, formed wholly
of Normans, including his cavalry, which had special
instructions to support the confederate bodies upon
either wing, as the exigencies of the day might requii
In this likewise was placed the reserve, under his

i 8 Wace ; Chron. de Nor.

9 There is in the same group (in the Bayeux tapestry) the figure of
knight armed cap-a-pie, in the close-fitting ring-armour, and cc
helmet, worn by the Norman chivalry of that era, with a gonfaloi
attached to his lance, something after the fashion of the streamer, whic
forms part of the paraphernalia of the modern lancer, with this difference
that the gonfalon of the ancient knight was adorned with his device 01
armorial bearing, and served the purpose of a banner — a general rallying
point for his followers. The knightly figure is believed to have been tl
redoubtable Conqueror of this realm. — Lives of the Queens of England.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 181

immediate orders, to be advanced only in case of
possible extremity, to retrieve the fate of the day. The
archers filled up the points of each corps, discharging
also the duty of light troops or voltigeurs, and in this
order they advanced to the attack.1

Before the papal banner, borne by Toustain the Fair,
rode the gigantic warrior and minstrel Taillefer, singing
the famous song of Roland, the chivalrous peer of Char-
lemagne, in which the whole army joined.2 Advancing
at the head of the army, the warrior-minstrel challenged
any one of the English to a single combat, which being
accepted, he slew the first and second, but was himself
slain by the third assailant. Upon this the Normans
commenced the attack.

Harold had arrayed his army in two divisions ; the
first destined to defend his entrenched positions, advan-
tageously chosen upon an eminence ; the second chiefly
composed of the militia and London bands, forming
the rear-ward and reserve; and here, too, the royal
standard of England — a warrior armed — was displayed.
He had resolved to act upon the defensive, and, being
deficient in cavalry, he had strengthened his van and
advanced body with select troops, added to the men of
Kent, who, from long custom, claimed that post of
honour, and who, after skirmishing with the enemy's
light infantry, fell back upon the dense masses in their
rear. King Harold, like the duke, had harangued his
troops with great spirit previously to their joining
battle. He recalled to their remembrance the miseries
they had sustained, especially from the Danes, by their

1 \V. Pict. ; Wace ; Chron. de Nor.

2 W. of Malms. ; M. of West. ; Hen. of Hunt. ; W. Gemit. ; Henry ;
Rapin ; Speed ; Tyrell ; Lingard.

182 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

subjection to a foreign yoke. Would they tamely be-
hold the spoil and ruin of their common land/ their free
government, their wealth, their long prosperity under
the good king Edward, — of their wives, their children,
their homes ? He painted, in strong colours, the rifling
of their property, the violation of their wives and
daughters; the destruction, or what is worse, the
oppression and slavery of all classes of the people.
' e Whether," he concluded, " you are to endure these, or
never to fear them more, depends upon yourselves, and
must be sought in the result of this day's fight.4 Be
men ! close firm your ranks ; obey my voice, and acquit
yourselves as you shall see your king."

In point of strength and numbers, the armies were
nearly equal. In nerve and muscle the English were
far superior, as their large and well-knit frames, the
size of their poleaxes and swords, and the length of
their darts, in addition to the strength of their bucklers,
sufficiently proved. They were also more numerous
and united than the Normans, acting upon the defen -
sive in serried bodies, protected by artificial bulwarks
called pavises ; but all these were more than counter-
balanced by the duke's superior tactics, his greater
experience and skill in arms. He possessed an immense
superiority as well in the discipline of his army as in
the character and numbers of his bowmen and his
cavalry, the absence of which in his army has been
pronounced a capital error on the side of Harold. Again
the Earl of York, his brother, implored that he might

3 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Hayward ; Hume ; Henry ; Lingard ;
Mackintosh.

4 Henderson ; Hayward ; Abbe Prevost ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron.
de Nor.; Duchesne ; Mazeres ; Wace.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 183

be permitted to lead the battle, while the king himself,
consulting the safety of his people rather than his own,
should command the reserve. " If you are resolved to
fight," he argued, " you should employ your authority
in collecting a new army to meet the Normans in case
of need. If you will commit the conduct of this force
to me, I will not fail to prove both the love of a brother
and the care and courage of a commander. For, as I
am not at all obliged to the duke by oath, I shall
either prevail with a better cause, or die with an easier
conscience." Harold strenuously opposed any altera-
tion in his plans.5 " What," he exclaimed, ee would you
have me fly before a company of priests ? " alluding to
the Norman custom of shaving their chins from the
example set by the duke. " But, whatever they are, I
have digested in my mind the hardest events of battle ;
and never will I incur a suspicion of the infamy of
cowardice. " 6 In this brave mood he met the battle.

The first onset of the Normans was terrible. It was
such as only Harold's veterans, trained under his own
eye, long inured to war and victory, could have sus-
tained; for such were the duke's precautions that,
before they could close with the Normans, they were
saluted with a repeated storm of arrows, such as had
before swept the doughtiest chivalry of France before it.
But the English, though pierced with many a wound,
closed their ranks, and faltered not. They were in-
structed by Harold to cover themselves by joining their
targets, while they advanced to close with the enemy.
The duke made the attack with his right wing, a divi-

5 u And thus," says the quaint Hay ward, " doth fortune oftentime deal
with men, as executioners do with condemned persons : she will first
blindfold, and then dispatch them." 6 Hay ward ; Henderson.

184 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

sion of which, was commanded by Robert Fitz Beau-
mont, a young commander of great promise. It was
his object to carry the advanced position occupied by
the Kentish men sustained by Harold and his veterans ;
and to drive them back upon their entrenchments.
Finding that his deadly showers of arrows, though per-
fectly new to the English, and for some moments open-
ing their ranks by their death-bolts, failed to produce
the usual effect, and that his first onset was as firmly
received and repulsed as if not an arrow had flown,
the duke ordered his heavy horse to make a charge
through the opened ranks of his archers and men-at-
arms.

But the charge was received upon the point of the
English lance, the sole weapon on thajb eventful day to
counterpoise the power of the Norman cavalry and spear.
Many a horseman reeled in the dust ; and, upon renew-
ing the charge, few approached close enough to give the
heroic English the same advantage. The duke immedi-
ately threw his squadrons into wings, and through the
open spaces, he gave orders for the veteran infantry to
advance in line and charge. Then, indeed, came the
shock of battle — the veteran Normans composing part
of William's centre coming to close handstrokes with
the unbroken van of Harold, consisting of his stanchest
soldiers, headed by the Kentish men. The conflict was
maintained with spirit on both sides. The carnage, like
the shock, was horrible ; spear and lance were thrown
aside ; and the pole and battle-axe and the sword were
the only weapons employed. The English asked no
more than to fight hand to hand; and took a fearful
vengeance for the lives of their comrades, who had fallen
by the arrows of the Normans. The latter began to

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 185

waver; but the duke was at hand to reinforce Mont-
gomery and De Beaumont at the weak points ; yet while
he maintained the combat he was unable to gain the
least ground, much less to dislodge the English. It
was in vain that the archers plied their bows, followed
by the men at arms, who opened the spaces for the
repeated charges of the cavalry, gallantly made only to
be more gallantly repulsed.

Harold, too, had fortified his line of entrenchments in
such a manner as to provide his men with some cover
from the long bows and spears of the Normans, and give
due advantage to the old English battle-axe in a close
defensive contact with William's serried ranks. " Their
feet steady, their hands diligent, their eyes keen and
watchful, their hearts resolute ; their cool stern valour
was not misguided by their hate; nor was their hate
cooled by their wary courage/'

The duke, after some hours' conflict of this deadly
kind, was scarcely able to keep his front ranks in order,
although supported by fresh reinforcements and the
renewed attacks of his horse. With them the English
veterans knew how to deal ; their only annoyance and
their dread was of the winged arrows, which showered
so thick that they seemed to have the enemy in the
midst of them. Neither steel nor target was proof
against these missiles; for every hand, every finger's
breadth, was an exposed point for many a piercing
wound; and the Normans, by shooting into the air, over
the heads of the foremost ranks, slew numbers in the
centre and rear destined to reinforce the van.7

King Harold, however, showed himself equal to the
emergency. He was in every part of the field where

7 Hayward ; Henderson ; Prevost ; Chron. de Nor.

186 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

the pressure was most formidable,, or where danger
called him. Under many disadvantages he displayed
all the bravery of a veteran, and the skill — according to
the military practice of England at that period — of a
great commander. He repaired all disasters, reinforced
the weak points, and closed the broken ranks. He kept
them in firm array, each portion of his force aiding the
other, so as not only to bear the full brunt of the enemy's
shocks, but to shake their opposing squadrons till they
had difficulty to maintain their ground.

In the rear of his entrenched camp the king had con-
structed a breast-work made of strong osier branches,
bound with ropes and supported by wooden pillars,
which resisted the arrows. From behind this defence
his soldiers could issue forth, and mount the ramparts
in front, as safely as if they were clothed in complete
armour.8

To carry this position the Normans must have entered
the trenches and thence scaled the barriers; and the
moment they gained the parapet the battle-axes would
come into play. The duke, alarmed to find that he
could make no impression, and that his troops were
evidently losing confidence, ordered his second line of
veteran Normans to advance; while he directed the
archers to give their arrows such an aim as to ensure

8 Norman chroniclers assert that, by this device of Harold's, the
arrows could do little damage. It was like one immense shield, made of
wicker-work, cemented with clay, and bound together ; and with this
immense wooden wall the entire English camp was surrounded. Thus,
if the English had not too eagerly pursued the Normans in their pre-
tended flight, far into the plain, where they were surrounded by the
horse, spearmen, and archers, it would have been impossible that they
could have lost the day ; and a day not lost to them, would have been
ruin to William. — Hist, de Nor. ; Duchesne ; Chron. de Nor. ; Pict.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 187

their falling within the English barriers, not against
them.

In this attack, the duke exposed his person so far
that it was more than once reported he was slain. He
had three horses killed under him, and often necessarily
alighted to fight on foot. His power of endurance was
great; and he thus set an inspiriting example to his sol-
diers, applauding the brave, rebuking the slow, and shout-
ing out with vehement gestures, that it was a shame for
them, who had been victorious over all the nations they
had encountered, to be so long withheld by the English
from plucking the crown of victory. It was solely by the
strength of such authority and example, that he could
sustain the sinking spirits of his troops, who, in fair and
close encounter with the English, showed their physical
inferiority ; a distinction which was still more marked
with regard to the other foreigners.

This renewed attack was conducted upon a larger
scale, strongly reinforced, but met with no better suc-
cess. In a conflict for the possession of the first of the
three barriers in the centre outlet, the slaughter was
terrific ; William advanced a fresh body of his Normans,
all the efforts of the confederates being in vain ; and it
was then that the rage and horrors of this desperate
combat reached their height. The loud cries of the
English, engaged hand to hand with William's veterans,
added to its terrors. " Holy Rood ! God almighty ! "
was their battle-cry, as they struck the death-blow upon
the foe with the last expiring energy of hate. Harold,
though he had been wounded by the duke's stratagem
of shooting over the barriers, was still seen encouraging
his troops. Keeping his ranks close, he repeatedly ad-
monished them that they should cut off the heads of the

188 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Norman spears with their axes, a*nd then slay their
enemy, but for no consideration to break their order.

Unhappily this injunction was repeated in vain. The
error committed by the English was fatal — one that in
war can never be committed twice. The third sustained
attack of the Normans having been repelled, they issued
from their positions in great numbers, eager in pursuit ;
the retreat, if not feigned, was conducted with great
order, and the English were in turn repulsed. Still
they retained their former position; they had been
engaged from break of day, and it was now high noon.
After several ineffectual efforts, the Normans again
began to give way ; another report of the duke's death
being circulated 9 added to the alarm ; and if Harold
at this juncture could have advanced in compact order,
the victory had been his own.

The duke, however, was soon seen traversing his front
ranks at full gallop, with his half-brother, Odo, holding
the crozier, riding at his side. A few minutes later his
appearance would have probably failed to retrieve the
battle.

Perceiving that open attacks were of no avail, the

9 The report having gained the rear, where an immense number of
Norman clergy were awaiting the result, a general panic arose among
the priests, clerks, and varlets, who were left with the women in charge
of the baggage. They were with difficulty prevented from taking to
instant flight. Several of the prelates had retired with the bishop of
Coutances to an eminence, whence they made earnest intercession with
prayer ; but their chief confidence lay in the valour of their brother
Odo, who fought like a lion, and occasionally hastened from William's
side to raise their sinking spirits. He now arrived very opportunely to
stop their retreat, and, having refreshed himself with some cups of wine,
he resumed his arms, encouraged the soldiers, and, acting the part of the
duke's aide-de-camp, was seen directing the officers and men at different
points of the field. — W. Pict. ; Hist, de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 189

duke, after having restored order, had recourse to one
of his favourite stratagems. He ordered a general
attack on the positions of the English by his whole
line, but added secret instructions that, in the heat of
the melee, his soldiers should again retreat, and on this
last occasion Harold could no longer restrain the im-
petuosity of his troops. Of a frank and noble spirit,
their ardent hope of victory carried them away. They
fell into the snare. The Normans, in compact order,
turned upon their pursuers, who had broken rank, and
seizing the advantage pierced their squares on all sides,
and made a cruel butchery. Yet, in spite of fortune and
of death, the English fled not, but, throwing themselves
into small squares, sustained the fierce shocks of the
enemy.

Other disasters, however, were at hand. The duke,
in giving the signal to wheel and attack, ordered out his
heavy horse and his reserve, and it was in vain that the
English still fought like men who beheld the victory
unjustly snatched out of their hands. Thrice with his
cavalry he charged the English wings, while clouds of
arrows darkened all the plain. From that moment the
battle was decided, for Harold had already fallen. To-
wards the evening, while still unweariedly sustaining his
army with his voice and hand, he was struck with an
arrow through the left eye into the brain, and fell dead
upon the field. His two brothers, Gurth and Leofwin,
were also slain, with nearly all the nobles and knights,
in the battle.

The old Anglo-Saxon heroism, worthy of a better fate,
set in that dark eclipse ; the battle-axe no longer availed
against the Norman spear. Each spot of ground where
they stood was a soldier's grave. At length, having

190 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

formed into one body, they retired in tolerable order to
a rising ground. Thence they once more repulsed the
Normans with great slaughter, whose commander, count
Eustace, concluding that the English had received rein-
forcements, fled back to the duke, declaring that if he
advanced any farther he was lost. "While thus speaking
he was struck to the ground, and the blood gushed
from his nose and mouth. A number of Norman lords
and knights fell in this last deadly conflict, till the duke
withdrew his advanced force, and the English were per-
mitted to retire unmolested. A considerable body of
Normans perished in attempting the pursuit over
low, marshy grounds, covered with sedges and reeds,
where they were either stifled or destroyed by their
enemies, who were well acquainted with the localities
of the spot.

When the English retired to the acclivity, the Nor-
mans, entering the entrenchments, renewed the carnage
at every step.1 In the last attack the duke had another
horse killed under him; but Toustain, at the head of
the Norman knights, penetrated to the royal standard.
There it was that the gallant earl, Harold's brother,
and the young Leofwin, fell covered with wounds. It is
stated by some writers 2 that Harold himself had retired
to this hill, and that he had the grief of surviving to see
the Norman banners raised over the spot where the
English ensigns had waved. Certain it is that there
was neither rout nor flight ; so great was the despairing
energy with which the English fought.3 King Harold's

1 W. Pict. ; Wace ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor, ; Ord. Vit. ; Henry ; Hume.

2 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; W. Pict. ; Wace ; Walsingham.

3 It is stated that the duke, whenever he spoke of this terrific and
hard-contested field, compared with which his former battles were mere

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 191

army was exterminated, but not vanquished; and Eng-
land lay paralysed at the feet of the Conqueror.

It is also a singular fact that there is no record of a
single prisoner having been made,, or of a single English
soldier having turned his back or fled. It is thus evi-
dent that the Normans owed their victory to William's
stratagem, and to the use of the bow, both in reference
to Harold's death4 and to the slaughter it inflicted from a
distance. Yet the English soon became the most formid-
able in that weapon of any nation, and the best marks-
men in the world. They could discharge their bows ten
or twelve ranks deep at the same moment and pierce
almost as many of the enemy. It proved more fatal
than the harquebuss and the caliver when first brought
into use ; and the wound was of such a nature as more
effectually to disable the combatants, especially the horse.

It is asserted that the Conqueror, passing at night
over the field of battle, observed a soldier in the act of
piercing the dead body of a knight with his lance. It
was the fallen king. Indignant at the sight, he ordered
the man to be discharged, esteeming it as dishonour-
able, says the chronicle,5 to strike an enemy when dead,
as to turn his back upon him in fight.

So terminated the memorable battle of Hastings, to
the astonishment of Europe, which had predicted Wil-

boys' play, distinguished it by the title of the Vale of Sanguelac, or the
Lake of Blood. Other writers say that it was known by that name long
before.— Vest. Ang. ; Clarke ; Speed ; Chron. Sax. ; Ord. Vit.

4 The body of Harold is said to have been found amidst a heap of slain
by his mistress, Lady Edith, " with the swanVneck," who was induced to
make 'the search at; the request of two monks of Waltham, sent by
Harold's mother. — Vest. Ang. ; MS. Abb. Waltham ; Speed Chron.

5 Hist, de Nor. ; ^Cliron. de Nor. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. j Duchesne ;
Ord. Vit.; W. Pict."

192 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Ham's failure, and perhaps to that of the Conqueror
himself. The results exceeded his most sanguine ex-
pectations. Though it was only the commencement of
a twenty years' war, to establish his feudal system in
opposition to the laws of the realm, it gave him ample
time to mature his plans and lay down the scheme of
his future policy; for he soon saw the necessity of
making concessions, and temporising with a people
possessing the heroism and frank magnanimous spirit
of freedom, which appeared inherent in the Anglo-
Saxons. He felt that he was anything but a con-
queror over such a people, from whom he had barely
won a single battle with the aid of half Europe's
chivalry, by superior art and successful stratagem.

That night the duke pitched his tents upon the field
which he had thus won. Soon after the ensuing dawn,
he commanded his brother Odo to celebrate mass,
and sing requiems for the dead. He at first refused
to restore to the weeping parent the body of her son ;
but afterwards gave it up with those of his two brothers
to the queen-mother, by whom they were interred in
the abbey of Waltham.6

William had already registered his forces at St.
Valery, and he could easily ascertain the Norman loss,
stated by some writers to have amounted to between
6,000 and 7,000 men; but, upon sufficient data and
closer examination, it would appear to have approached
nearer to 12,000 ; without including the missing and
wounded. Even this aggravated estimate of the

6 The unfortunate mother placed over the tomb of her heroic son the
following emphatic epitaph — Harold Infelix ; and it was also a lasting
monument to the brilliant fortune of his foe, Guglielmus Felix. — Thierry :
W. Malms.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROll. 193

slaughter would leave that assigned to the English
disproportionate, beyond the limits of probability or
reasonable comparison. As recorded in the registry
roll drawn up at the time and deposited at West-
minster, we must admit Harold's army to have perished
almost to a man, when the sum total of the slain is
placed at upwards of 60,000. Though most English
historians compute the loss of the Normans to have
exceeded the 6,000 or 7,000 so recorded, they have not
generally questioned the correctness of the Norman
computation of the English loss, in the well founded
belief that it was really enormous. Some error may
easily have arisen as to placing the figures ; or it may
be conjectured that this number was intended to include
the wounded and the prisoners, if any.7

The day after the victory, the duke returned to Has-
tings, about seven miles from the field, in order to
refresh his army, and fix upon his plan of prosecuting
his enterprise. He despatched messengers to announce
his success to his friends and allies abroad. His
duchess, now a queen, was found engaged in her devo-
tions in the Benedictine priory of Notre Dame, near
St. Severe. The occasion was opportune for the cele-
bration of a Te Deum to the God of Battles, which

' Though the loss of the English was immense during the last four
hours of the battle, these returns on both sides are to be received with
considerable caution. We must remember that it was William's object
to strike terror into the people ; to prostrate them after defeat ; and the
amazing disproportion was well calculated to produce such impression
and to render the Norman soldiers truly formidable in the eyes of the
nation. — Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Vie de Guilleaume, &c. ; Abbe Prevost ;
M. West. M. Nagerel is the chief Norman authority from whom the
numbers of the slain were taken — professedly from the registry rolls at
Westminster.

VOL. I. O

194 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

was immediately performed with due ceremonies ; and
it was decreed that, from that time, the name of the
priory should receive the pleasing addition of Bonnes
Nouvelles — our lady of good news — which it retains to
the present day.8 To his Holiness the Pope, William
made a present of king Harold's standard, representing
a warrior in the act of striking, wrought curiously with
gold and precious stones.

The complete destruction, or dispersion, of the
English army, without an effort to rally; the bold
measures and rapid progress of the Normans, with the
national consternation everywhere produced; at once
opened William's way to the long-disputed throne.
That throne is still filled by the descendants of the
Conqueror, and the greatest families in the realm date
their origin from the battle of Hastings,9 Even before
he had resumed his triumphal march, his arrival in the
capital was daily expected. A universal panic had
seized the heart, and for a moment prostrated the
energies, of the country; and its greatest leaders,
instead of rallying and summoning forth its strengtl
in their native districts, sunk under the blow, am
supinely awaited the destiny preparing for them.

With the Conqueror's entry into London a
epoch in his extraordinary and eventful career open
upon our view. The military head of a small state
seemed to have achieved, in a single battle, the most ad
venturous and enterprising conquest in the records o
Europe. Assuming the monarch's sceptre, he thence
forth appears in the anomalous position of the ruler o:
a comparatively free people, to whose laws he wa

8 Ducarel, Nor. Antiq.

9 Alison, Hist, of Europe, vol. i. ; Hume, i. ; Henry, iii.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 195

bound to subscribe, and who submitted, however
unwillingly, on such conditions, to acknowledge him as
their sovereign. The consequences of such a compact
were easily to be foreseen ; but in the bitter fruits which
it bore were also ripened the seeds of British consti-
tutional liberty.

196

CHAPTER V.

William delays his march upon the capital — Renews his communications
with the Continent — Severities exercised at Romney — Consternation
of the country and the capital — Meeting of English lords and prelates
— The earls Edwin and Morcar — Determination to oppose the Nor-
mans— Proposed coronation of Edgar Atheling — Distraction of the
English councils — Flight of the two earls — Deputation to offer the
crown to William — His conduct and policy — Prepares to build Norman
fortresses — Tower of London — His coronation — Suspects the fidelity of
the city— Return to his camp at Berkhampstead— Progress through
the country — Devastations of the Normans — The feudal laws by which
he was bound — Provision for his adherents — The English sacrificed —
False position with the nation — Battle Abbey — System of government —
Confiscating plans — Proscription of the English nobility and clergy —
His military government — Secret police — The most powerful feudal
sovereign of his times — Internal administration — Courts of law — Con-
stitutional restraints — Anglo-Saxon laws and customs — Traditionary
freedom from Egbert to Alfred and Edward the Confessor — Adverse
to William's policy — Efforts to establish a virtual despotism unsuccess-
ful— Brilliant court — Architectural labours — Privileges and charters
— Confirms some old laws and customs — Appoints a Regency — Re-
visits Normandy— His object and policy— Oppression of the Englisl
— Plundered by the king's agents— His Norman court — English fol-
lowers— Norman ladies — Anecdotes of the queen and her court — The
royal progress through Normandy — Insurrections in England — Retv
of the Conqueror, and his prompt suppression of them — Law — Exami-
nation of the merits of rival parties — System pursued by William-
How far his own — Its evils and advantages.

WITH liis usual foresight and sagacity, William, befoi
penetrating further into the country, opened effective
communications with France and Normandy. So fai
from being unduly elevated by his mighty conquest/

1 It was deemed an extraordinary work of Providence that the Enj
lish should have given up all for lost after the battle of Hastings, where \

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 197

with his characteristic caution and moderation, he
marched to Dover,2 being resolved to commence his pro-
gress to the capital from that point. The whole of the
Conqueror's track from Hastings to Dover, and from
Dover to London, is in Domesday Book marked by
the commissioners with the significant word devastated,
A line also may be easily traced on the maps of his
entire route to the borough of Southwark.

William is believed to have first exercised military
law at Romney 3 upon some of the inhabitants, for having
put to death, as was reported, a party of his ship-
wrecked sailors. Such was the dread of his arrival in
the town of Dover, that the tidings of the battle were
almost the signal for its surrender. A disastrous fire
attended his entry into the place ; but, pleased with the
submission of the inhabitants, the Conqueror is said
to have remunerated the sufferers, as if to show that,
having thus acknowledged his title, he treated them
not as enemies but as subjects.

After restoring the fortifications, and leaving a strong
garrison in the castle, he set out on his triumphal pro-
gress towards London.4 Instead of proceeding by the

single army only, though a brave one, had perished. W. of Malms.,
1. iii. ; Hallam ; History and Government of the Middle Ages, ii, 158.

2 Sir John Ashburnham, after Harold's defeat, defended Dover
Castle against the invader, who caused him to be beheaded or put to the
sword. The first of this family mentioned hi our peerage is named Ber-
ham, sheriff of Surrey, Sussex, and Kent, and constable of Dover Castle,
beheaded by William.

3 The Normans set fire to it, and reduced it to ashes. The devasta-
tion of Romney, however, does not appear in the record. The filling up
of the port is said to have occasioned the decay of Old Romney, whei eas
the new town was very flourishing in the Conqueror's time.

4 After Harold was slain, Edwin and Morcar, Earls of Northumberland
and Markland, had induced many of the nobility to declare Edgar Athe-

198 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

direct route, he conducted his army so as to secure the
strong places along the coast by way of Sussex, Surrey,
Hampshire, and Berkshire ; not a single district through
which he passed manifesting the slightest symptom of
resistance to his will.5 At Wallingford he passed the
Thames, and then directed his route through the
important counties of Oxford, Buckingham, and Hert-
ford, until he arrived at the castle of Berkhampstead.
During this progress many of his troops fell sick and
died, and it is stated that he was himself seized with a
violent illness, which excited the alarm of those around
him. As he was distressed however for provisions, and
had given free range to the licentiousness of his soldiers,
who devastated towns and villages, he pressed forward,
after receiving the submission of the chief inhabitants,
and in many cases hostages for their good conduct. It

ling their king ; but the prelates not only crossed that purpose, but
surrendered Edgar, the next heir from the Saxon kings, to the pleasure
of the duke.

Again, when the duke, after his great victory at Hastings, marched his
army towards Hertfordshire, one Frederic, Abbot of St. Albans, had
caused the woods belonging to the church to be felled and the trees to be
cast so thick in the way, that the duke was compelled to make a circuit
to the castle of Berkhampstead. To this place the abbot, under sureties,
came to him, and being asked why he alone dared offer that opposition,
he replied, with an assured air, " that he had done no more than in con-
science and nature he was bound to do ; and if the residue of the clergy
had borne the same mind, he should never have pierced the land so far."
" Well," answered the duke, " I know that your clergy is powerful
indeed, but if I live and prosper in my affairs, I shall govern their great-
ness well enough." Assuredly nothing sooner subverts a state, than that
one set of subjects shall grow so great as to be able to overrule all the
rest. — Hayward's Lives, &c.

5 The paucity of places of defence was one cause why William so
rapidly subdued the kingdom. The castles of Dover, Oxford, and Nor-
wich are conjectured, though with no great probability, to be of Saxon
origin. — Vestigia Ang. i. 174, 5.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 199

was probably this necessity for resolute exertion which
enabled him to throw off his infirmity contracted from
the noxious vapours of the low marshy grounds, and
much resembling the periodical agues or fevers inci-
dental to them.

On repairing to Berkhampstead, William, still watchful
and prudent, detached a part of his army to erect new
fortifications in the capital, and to require the hostages
who were delivered up to him. The gates were indeed
thrown open ; but he continued to linger in his camp
till the military occupation of London was complete, and
necessary preparations had been made for his coro-
nation. Meanwhile, to show how much his mind was
at ease, he amused himself with the diversions of
hunting and hawking in the neighbourhood.6

Distraction reigned in the councils of the Anglo-
Saxon lords and prelates. The feeble effort to raise
Edgar Atheling to the throne before the Conqueror's
arrival melted away at his approach.7 The earls Edwin
and Morcar, having gained over the primate Stigand,
ventured to oppose the Conqueror's march,8 but the

6 W. Pict. 205 ; Ord. Vit. 522 ; T. Sails. ; R. Hoveden.

7 William purposely delayed his movements, in order to take advan-
tage of circumstances ; and, if possible, to ascend the throne without the
legal restrictions exacted by the English from their sovereigns. He thus
remained upwards of a week at Dover, partly to recruit his army, in
which a fatal dysentery broke out, which compelled him to leave his
sick in the fortress. This he repaired and placed in a very formidable
state of defence. That at Hastings he also strongly fortified and regarri-
soned, being, according to Ordericus Vitalis, the third which William re-
stored or erected in England. — Hist. Ang. ; Speed ; Baker ; Vest. Ang.
Ord. Vit.

8 With regard to the opposition offered by the men of Kent, during
the Conqueror's advance, by which it has been supposed they succeeded
in retaining their laws and customs, especially that of gavelkind, existing

200 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

rout of the London troops by 500 Norman horse
carried fresh dismay into the Anglo-Saxon party. The
two earls are said to have fled to their estates, but
the bishops and clergy, especially those who had been
promoted by King Edward, sought by their influence to
induce the inhabitants to open their gates to the Con-
queror. A deputation was appointed to wait upon the
duke, headed by Aldred, archbishop of York, accom-
panied by Edgar Atheling, Wolstane, bishop of Wor-
cester, Wilfred, bishop of Hereford, and other prelates
and nobles.

William received them in his camp at Berkhampstead,
and, after they had tendered the usual pledges for their
allegiance, consented to receive them into favour. It is
believed that the primate Stigand, archbishop of Canter-
bury, refused to attend, or to perform the ceremony of the
duke's coronation — a want of policy which soon opened
the way for his successor, the ambitious Lanfraiic.

Aldred, in the name of the deputation, invited William
to ascend the vacant throne, there being no prince more
worthy to assume the reins of government.9 The duke,
by no means anxious to accept the offer upon the con-
ditions prescribed to the Anglo-Saxon monarchs, replied

to this day, the whole would seem to be an ingenious fiction, flattering
to national pride and feeling. We find no allusion in " William of
Poitou," or in the most impartial of our early historians, to any terms
made by the people of Kent for the preservation of their ancient laws
and privileges. They are stated to have approached the Conqueror, as
king Malcolm did Macbeth, with a moving forest to distract his atten-
tion, and i hide perhaps the paucity of their numbers, and to have de-
clared that they preferred death to the loss of their laws, which William
promised to respect. — Speed ; Tyrrell ; Mazeres.

9 It has been said that William, like Augustus, came to the empire
neither by conquest nor by usurpation, nor inheritance, nor election ; but
by a strange mixture of all these rights. — Vestigia Anglicana,

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 201

"that he was more desirous to see peace established
throughout the land than even to wear a crown," and
expressed at the same time a wish that the ceremony of
his coronation should be delayed, until his consort, the
duchess Matilda, should arrive to participate in that
ceremony. On being reminded of the inconvenience
of delay, and its being contrary to English customs, he
consented to accept the title of king, and gave orders
that the coronation should take place at the celebration
of the approaching Christmas festival ; just two months-
from the date of his entering London.1

During the interval, William appears to have already
engaged in plans for the construction of those fortresses-
to overawe his new subjects, afterwards carried to such
an extent in all the principal towns, and along the line
of coasts in every direction. Nor is it improbable that
he now commenced that vast military edifice, the Tower ;
—the grand point of support for the long-meditated
royal and baronial fortresses invested with their
humbler terrors, in progress through the rural districts,
each laying claim to that sad distinction : " a prison
and a palace on each hand." The royal architect and
engineer whose designs were adopted by the ducal
council was Gundulph, bishop of Rochester, who had
previously erected the castle of Hurstmonceux upon
the spot where a wooden fort had stood. Next perhaps^
to the more splendid but less gloomy and terrific
palace-fortress of Windsor, the grand Tower possessed

1 " The duke, presently despatched to London, was received with many
declarations of joy, the lesser in heart, the fairer in appearance, and upon
Christmas- day next following was crowned king. Now the means whereby
this victory was assured were the very same whereby it was achieved ;
even by a stiff and rigorous hand." — Hayward. See also Sir J. Mack-
intosh, vol. i.

202 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

the pre-eminent advantage of a royal residence, and a
stronghold in the event of any outbreak in a capital
which had evinced so much disposition to resist.2

The day of William' s coronation having arrived,
Aldred, archbishop of York, was selected for the augnst
ceremony of placing the crown upon the Conqueror's
brows. But more sumptuous and magnificent prepara-
tions were reserved for the second event of this kind,
upon the arrival of the duchess Matilda.3 The first scene
of William's royalty was opened in Westminster abbey,
which rang with the armed tread of Norman knights
and barons, whose splendid retinue, however, was pur-
posely preceded by that of the English lords. Every-
thing was arrayed in a corresponding style of chivalric
pomp and stateliness ; 4 nor was the absence of the

2 The Tower appears to have been the fourth of those grand military
structures erected in England about the period of William's first corona-
tion in 1066. The castle of Winchester was built in 1067 ; that of
Chichester was the sixth ; and that of Arundel, in 1068, the seventh, with
another at Exeter in the same year. Those of Warwick, Nottingham,
York, Lincoln, and Huntingdon, were all built during one year. There
was a second and stronger fortress raised at York, and in some other
places, while the few Saxon edifices were greatly fortified and extended.
Cambridge, Ely, and Oxford, were the sites of others ; but the castles of
Chester and Stafford were not erected till the year 1076. They had all
of them Norman governors, and often Norman garrisons, the better to
hold the English in awe and stern subjection. "Imperium iis artibus
facillime retinetur quibus partum est." — Sal. Cat.

3 W. of Pict. ; W. of Malms. ; Nouv. Hist, de |Nor. ; Walsingham ;
Ypodigma ; S. Dunelm ; Hayward ; Abb6 Prevost ; Henderson.

4 On the preceding afternoon, we are told, he entered the city on horse-
back, and took up his abode at the palace of Blackfriars. On Christmas
morning he took boat to London Bridge, repaired to a house near London-
stone, and thence proceeded at the head of a splendid cavalcade, sur-
rounded with all the trappings of royalty. Near his person, next to the
Norman banners, rode the English nobles and officers of state. — Chron.
Sax. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 203

duchess an obstacle to the attendance of the rank and
beauty of the land. The archbishop pronounced an
address suitable to an occasion so extraordinary; and
in compliance with the Anglo-Saxon laws, asked the
English if they chose to accept William as their king ?5
The same question was put by the bishop of Coutances
to the Normans ; and, both having declared their assent
by general acclamation, William took the oath uni-
formly tendered at their coronation to the Anglo-Saxon
monarchs. This comprehended a full acknowledgment
of the laws of king Edward, which ensured certain pri-
vileges to different classes in the state, containing the
elements of constitutional liberty, as opposed to the
nature of a pure despotism.6 After binding himself to
other conditions in support of the common laws and
customs, William also took an oath to protect those of
the church ; to administer justice, to repress violence,
and at the instant when the prelate placed the crown

5 Therefore we must conclude that there could exist no right, without
the consent of the Estates of the kingdom, from relationship to or adop-
tion by king Edward, to justify the invasion of duke William. — Haddon
MS. Papers, &c., B. M.

6 See a curious work entitled Argumentum Antinormanicum, B. Mu-
seum; also Hallam, Hist, and Govern, of the Middle Ages, i. 159.

The account of the coronation by some of the Norman historians who
followed William is to be received with extreme caution. It would other-
wise be difficult for us to reconcile William's professions and his alleged
popularity at the outset with the oppressed and wretched condition of
the country subsequently. For we are told how he enjoined all his great
men to observe equity in all their actions, and ever to regard that Eternal
Monarch by whose assistance they had overcome ; that, though they
were victors, they ought not to oppress the vanquished, who were Chris-
tians as well as themselves, lest they might by their injuries provoke
those to rise up against them whom they had already subdued. — W. Pict.;
Tyrrell; Hallam; Brodie ; Lingard; Professor Smy the, Lectures on M.
Hist. ; Sir J. Mackintosh.

204 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

upon his head, a serene joy, we are told, diffused itself
over the features of all the spectators.

The Norman guards, however, mistaking the accla-
mations for some tumult endangering the life of the
new king, fell upon the people outside, and began to
set fire to the houses ; nor was it till king William him-
self appeared in his state robes to assure them of his
safety that their apprehensions were allayed, and the
riot ceased.7

Almost immediately after his coronation, king Wil-
liam repaired to his favourite quarters at Berkhampstead,
where, under the guise perhaps of Tpursuing the field
sports he so much loved, he withdrew from danger, and
gave time for the unruly Londoners, whose prowess he
had experienced at Hastings, to accommodate their
ideas to the rule of a foreign sovereign. Here he held
open court, and, by his frank and affable carriage, as if
intent only upon entertaining his new English lords
who flocked round him, inviting all the most influential
princes and thanes to hunt and hawk and feast with him,
and flattering their national foibles 8 till he felt himself
strong enough to seize their lands, succeeded in raising
high expectations of the justice and clemency of his

7 One might suppose the Normans to have been fire- worshippers, from
the extreme love they showed for incendiarism even upon the most
trifling occasions. Princes, nobles, and even mere youths, vied with each
other in the employment of their favourite element ; for which we may
vouch the example of William's own sons, when they set fire to one of
the towns of king Philip of France, at whose court they were residing. —
W. Pict. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouv. Hist. ; Duchesne.

8 The conduct of William at the outset of his reign has given rise to-
different views and discussions respecting his real motives. Whether he
was an unwilling legitimate monarch, and aimed at becoming a pure
despot, or whether he was only provoked into tyranny by resistance,
he was a profound politician. — Alison ; Hallam ; Brodie ; Smythe.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 205

future reign. With the wary policy which he had so suc-
cessfully practised in Normandy, he at first bestowed
offices of high trust upon Englishmen, even upon those
in whom their family descent and high renown might
have raised the most aspiring thoughts.9

Soon afterwards, William relinquished his field sports
and banquetings to make a progress through Essex and
other parts, and receive the homage of those lords and
prelates who had declined to attend at his coronation.
Among these ranked the two brother earls, Edwin and
Morcar, whose subsequent conduct offered so striking
a contrast to their new professions.1

That the ne\r monarch was in some degree the slave
of the feudal policy he sought to exercise over all classes,
and of his own systematic aggrandisement, no one can
doubt who has traced step by step the difficulties and
vicissitudes of his strange and unprecedented career.
He soon found it impossible to govern with the same
success as in Normandy, and to dictate new laws to
England. He could not even display the same cle-
mency and impartiality; for he felt bound to recom-
pense, at the expense of the vanquished, the nobles and
the army who had so zealously supported him. Thus
his desire to promote the prosperity and happiness of

9 Hallara ; Hist, of Middle Ages, 17, 161 ; Ord. Vit. 520 ; Duchesne ;
Hist. Nor., &c.

1 For some time William seemed really desirous of conciliating these
two distinguished noblemen, deservedly beloved by the people, as well as
Edgar Atheling, whom he treated with kindness and respect. His change
of policy was probably the work of those needy adventurers who followed
him. Having acquired expensive habits, their desires were insatiable ;
and, to gratify their demands, almost the whole landed property of Eng-
land was in a few years confiscated. Hardly any conquest since the fall
of Rome has been so violent or attended with such spoliation, contumely
and insult. — Alison ; Hist, of Europe ; Hume i. ; Thierry ii. ; i. 16.

206 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

the English, had he been sincere, would have been im-
practicable. The sums obtained from Harold's treasury
were soon exhausted, partly in paying the troops, and
partly in building, or in benefactions to different nionas*
teries and public charities.

The foundation of the church and abbey of St. Martin,
known by the name of Battle Abbey, on the spot where
Harold was said to have raised his standard, or to have
fallen,2 was no trivial expense. It was one of those
objects, combining worldly pride, piety, and charity, in
which both William and his consort felt deeply inte-
rested, as tending to perpetuate at once their public
and devotional labours and their names.3 But these
were the occupations of William' s less anxious hours,
when he could withdraw his attention from the cares of
a government at variance with the Anglo-Saxon laws,
so ill denned between the circumstances of conquest
and election, and consequently so ill adapted for the
attainment of popular and useful purposes. Old cus-
toms, laws, and habits offered to such a government a
passive but often effectual resistance, defying repeated
attempts either to overthrow them or to engraft upon
them to any extent foreign institutions, much less

2 W. Pict. ; W. of Malms. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor.

3 Battle Abbey has been celebrated by nearly all chroniclers in almost
every language, especially in Latin verse, and the quaint English of
Robert of Gloucester. William and Matilda built several others in
England, particularly one at Bermondsey, but of which not any remains
so entire still exist. A portion of Battle Abbey has since been converted
into a mansion, recently the property and the residence of the Webster
family. It must have been a truly noble pile ; the gate-house is pre-
served in its pristine state, and in it are held the magisterial sessions
relating to the jurisdiction of the place. The hall was magnificent indeed ;
and the kitchen, arched over throughout, was so spacious as to contain
five fire-places. — Fabyan's Chron. ; Ducarel ; Vestigia Ang. ; Monasticon.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 207

usages and manners, through the bulk of the com-
munity.

The Wittenagemote, however, or council of wise men,
by no means founded upon broad and popular principles
under the Anglo-Saxons, became, under the influence
of the Conquest, more and more aristocratical. So far
from admitting the Commons to its assemblies, these
gradually became less frequent, till they at last caused
an important event.4 In fact, with the progress of the
feudal system, it changed the character of its represen-
tation, and it was imperceptibly merged in the great
council of the Norman prelates and barons, in which
the influence of William was as predominant as that of
an administration in our modern House of Commons.
The masses, much less the servile population, were not
represented in it ; their privileges were interwoven with
the feudal system ; and it is the opinion of Mr. Turner5
that the Wittenagemote never consisted of any portion
of what we should term the Commons.

England, in truth, was destined to go through a political
ordeal, from which, terrible as it was, she rose unsullied,
erect, and fearless as before. It soon became manifest
that, with all the aid of mercenary armies and dungeon
towers, no conquest, no absolute dominion, could destroy
a whole people's knowledge of freedom, habits of thought,
usages, and language. William no doubt was perfectly
sensible of this great truth, though his avarice and am-
bition, impelled by the system pursued by himself and
his followers, led him greatly to underrate its strength,
and blinded him to its final triumph under the rule of
his not distant successors. For it required no uncommon

4 Professor Smythe, Lee. on Modern Hist., Lee. v. 154.
• 5 Anglo-Saxons, vol. i. Smythe, Lee. v. idem.

208 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

share of sagacity to discover that, in the words of a dis-
tinguished and impartial writer/ if the land of a country
be appropriated by a few, and the many have no manu-
factures to exchange for the produce of the soil, the lot
of the latter must under any form of government be
slavery and wretchedness. Without an equivalent to
purchase the means of subsistence, they have only the
melancholy alternative of starving or of submitting to
the conditions which the owners of the soil choose to
impose. Such was the feudal system under which every
large estate was a petty principality with one absolute
lord, whose vast number of dependants, while they con-
stituted his pride and boast, as well as the foundation of
his pow er, were only retained on the condition of implicit
obedience.7

Next to the establishment of the feudal power, that of
a strict system of police was the object of William's
earliest attention. Instead of the effective self-govern-
ment introduced by the great Alfred and his successors,
throughout the districts and hundreds, by means of the
resident authorities in local courts, he aimed at substi-
tuting for it the feudal sway of the barons, under the
military suzerainship so favourable to the centralising
power of the crown.8 Such a police, as experienced in
Normandy, had its advantages in curbing the military
and feudal licence, especially of the minor barons and
their satellites, and in preserving the public peace. So
ably and successfully did he administer it for some

0 Brodie, Intro, to Hist, of the British Empire, &c. i. p. 2.

7 Brodie, ibid.

8 Hallam ; Brodie ; Mackintosh ; Lingard. William had introduced
the ibiulal system, and those who held immediately of the Crown, became
in consequence members of ^the great national council. — Smythe, Lecture
v. 153.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 209

period after his accession, that travellers and individuals
we are told, of every rank,9 might traverse the country
with safety from end to end. While productive, how-
ever, of some collateral benefits, this system was subject
to great abuse, tainted as it was with the inherent vice
of general and absolute as distinct from local and re-
stricted rule, such as had obtained under the Anglo-
Saxon kings. Its dangerous tendency under the con-
trol of the Crown was first shown by the illegal arrest
of the Earl of Gloucester, and the confiscation, by royal
edict, of all his estates, which were declared forfeited to
the Crown. This violent and despotic act, to which we
have before alluded, is believed to have been prompted
by Matilda, in a spirit of fierce hatred and revenge that
has few parallels. In the first year of William's reign,
says the Chronicle, Matilda obtained from her lord the
grant of all Brithric Meaw's lands and honours, and
she then caused the unfortunate Saxon to be seized at
his manor of Hamlye and removed to Winchester, where
he is said to have died in prison, and to have been
privately buried.1 The allegation alone, without strong
corroborative proofs, of a crime of so dark a dye would
not readily have obtained credit with posterity, but, un-
fortunately for the reputation of the princess who per-
petrated it in the hour of triumph and prosperity, it is
left too apparent, too glaring, upon the page of contem-
porary history to admit of a moment's doubt.2

9 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; W. Pict. ; W. of Malms. ; Wace ; Walsing-
ham ; Ypodigma ; Ord. Vit. ; Henry ; Hume ; Tyrrell.

1 Thierry ; Ang.-Nor. Chron. of Tewksbury ; Leland, Coll. ; Cotton
MSS. ; Monasticon ; Doomsday Book ; Hist, of Gloucester.

2 In addition to the topographical history of the times, the record
appears also in Doomsday Book, where it is mentioned that Aveling,
Tewksbury, Fairford, Thornbury, Whitenhurst, and other possessions in

VOL. I. P

210 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

This daring and flagitious deed — perpetrated so soon
after William's accession, the moment he felt himself
firmly seated upon his throne, and well supported by his
military tenures and his new police — naturally revolted
or terrified the English, who had relied upon the pledges
taken at his coronation, and upon his previous mild
deportment towards the barons and the princes of the
Anglo-Saxon line. A few of the most politic, taking
the alarm, and anticipating the evils to come, threw up
their offices, sold their estates, and retired to foreign
lands, where, in no long time, they were joined by
numbers of their less wary countrymen, stripped of all
they possessed. The stern discipline of William's
secret police was exceeded only by that of his army,
which he had strongly reinforced, and of his great feudal
vassals from whom the military chain descended, bind-
ing in a stricter grasp as it approached the lower links.
The mask once thrown aside, the Conqueror, no longer
affecting the moderation or the deportment of a limited
monarch, prepared in good earnest to carry on the war
against the people, and to retain by military policy that
which he had won by the sword. Still it seemed to be
his object that no one should confiscate their property,
and oppress or destroy them, but himself. He expressed
his anxiety to restrain the excesses of his great vassals
and other subordinate authorities, as if jealous of their
participation, and apprehensive that the spoils of the
English as a nation would be divided too fast.

Gloucestershire, formerly belonging to Brithric the son of Algar, were
granted to Matilda by the Conqueror, and, after her death reverting to
the Crown, were by William again bestowed on their second son, William
Rufus. Matilda, it is known, also deprived Gloucester of its charter
civic privileges, because it was the city of the unhappy Brithric,
manifested some sympathy for his fate.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 211

While lie thus gradually extended his sovereignty,
and governed his nobles with a more vigorous sway
than any feudal prince or chief in Europe, he appears
also to have calculated upon those insurrections of an
oppressed people, which would enable him to enlarge
and consolidate his royal prerogatives, and hold the
same unlimited sway over the people as he soon exercised
over the great councils of the State. The Conquest, in
this sense, so far from being the result of one battle or
of a single campaign, involved a war against the superior
character, power, and freedom inherent in the Anglo-
Saxon monarchy and institutions, which William in
vain attempted to eradicate or to subdue.3

It is evident, therefore, that while the new king gave
the most prudent, moderate, and even humane injunc-
tions to his prelates and nobles, it was his secret policy
to encourage the disorders and rapacity of his greater
followers, who, as in the case of his brother Odo, when
they had amply glutted themselves with the public
spoils, were deemed worthy of being themselves made
the royal prey. Eulers of fertile provinces, they
were destined in their turn to feel the pressure of a
royal hand, not less severe than that which they inflicted
upon the authorities and people beneath them ; and, by
a sort of feudal privilege, the political sponges were
alternately filled and emptied, the last and fullest being
reserved for the royal treasury itself. Had William
been really desirous of repressing the violence and
restraining the gross excesses of his nobles and the
subordinate vassals, he could have succeeded by the
same means as he had employed in Normandy, and the
English would not so early, if at all, have broken out

3 Brodie ; Ilallam ; Mackintosh ; Alison ; Thierry ; Henry j Lingard.

p 2

212 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

into insurrection. Had he respected their bravery, or
felt for their misfortunes, instead of indulging the ran-
corous enmity and insatiable desire of revenge which
embittered even his last moments, it is impossible that
the name of Englishman should have fallen so low as
soon to become a term of reproach, and that none of
native birth should have been admitted to any office or
authority ; an exclusion second only to confiscation or
exile, and which was continued for nearly a century
and a half.

Yet this systematic oppression, conducted by policy,
and instigated by passion, by the worst of passions —
ambition, avarice, and revenge — did not prevent his
granting exclusive rights and privileges similar, only
in a smaller degree, to his own, in order to enrich his
exchequer; but the effect of this was by degrees to
create a rival democratic power, which threatened to
subvert the thrones of his less politic successors. Had
he not aimed at absolute sovereignty, had he not
given a free license to his great vassals and their
retainers, to his army when in action, and to the silent
terrorism of his spies and police, it is incredible that
the Normans would have dared to carry matters to such
an extreme against the English, or have succeeded, after
plundering them of their property, in trampling them
under their feet. More than one of William's more
honest adherents refused to join in the exterminating
crusade, declaring that they had land enough at home,
and did not wish to despoil that of other people. Or is
it at all probable that, with a monarch well-disposed
towards his English subjects, so attached to law and
discipline, so stern and terrible in his anger, his depend-
ents would have ventured upon those violent and illegal

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 213

measures and acts of outrage which marked their con-
duct in their treatment of the vanquished? On the
other hand, we are assured4 that the Normans were
astonished at their own power, became as it were mad
with pride, and imagined that they might do whatever
they pleased to the English. Young ladies of the highest
rank and greatest beauty, having lost their fathers, bro-
thers, and protectors, and being violated by armed
ruffians, called upon Death to come to their relief.5
Happy those who found sanctuary, or made their escape
into the convents !

Excesses and enormities like these could have had
their origin only in a studied contempt, sanctioned by
the monarch, for everything English; for the most
sacred ties ; for the exercise of honour, justice, or any
virtue whatever in connection with the vanquished. No
efforts appear to have been made by him to allay
the jealousies of a conquered people, to lighten the
yoke of his feudal aristocracy, heavy as it was, or to
obtain the confidence of his new subjects, by his impar-
tiality, his clemency or his justice. In his love of domi-
nion and vengeance, he seemed to have forgotten the
more liberal and magnanimous sentiments which actu-
ated him in his government of Normandy. Acting in
the spirit of the maxim that " to divide is to rule," he
extended the same policy to his foreign relations, and,
aware that the claims of the Danish kings to the sove-
reignty of England still existed, he left no means

4 Ord. Vit. ; Walsingham ; W. Pict. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor.

5 Yet at this very time William, it is said, was granting to the citizens
of London the first charter they ever possessed, « which is written in
the Saxon tongue, and sealed with green wax, and expressed in eight or
nine lines." — Fabyan's Chron. edited by Sir H. Ellis.

214 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

untried to create divisions in their councils; and his
endeavours were successful. The Norwegians supported
Magnus, the son of Olaus, while the Danes acknowledged
only Canute the Third. Torn by these factions, it was
not difficult for William to secure adherents among both
parties in a State where public offices were put up to
sale, and influence over the authorities was purchased
by money. He gained over Adelbert, archbishop of
Hamburg, a man of a busy intriguing spirit, who, by
fomenting discord both in court and camp, not only
delayed, but completely marred for a time, the grand
expedition long projected against England.

Relieved from immediate apprehensions in that quar-
ter> William cemented his alliance with other powers,
especially with Anjou, France, and Germany. It was
his object to prevent or appease all foreign wars,6 until
he had succeeded in establishing his new system, and
consolidating his power in England. With this view he
cultivated the most amicable relations with the papal
See, and availed himself of its paramount influence to
strengthen his connection with foreign courts. The
grand question as to the right of investitures, destined
so long to distract the royal councils of England, had
not yet been mooted, and William, by sanctioning the
collection of Peter-pence, which had given so much
umbrage to the Anglo-Saxon church, artfully contrived
to maintain his ascendency in the favour of the Holy
See.

Compelled, also, to place himself at the head of the
grand European movement which fixed the feudal instead

6 Novis ex rebus aucti, tuta et prsesentia, quam vetera et periculosa
malunt. — Tacit. 1 Ann.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 152

of the servile yoke — a mighty change auspicious to
future liberty — upon the institutions of every European
nation, William appeared at least to be desirous of
amalgamating the two people as far as in such a state of
affairs might be possible. With this view he promoted
the union of English ladies of rank with his great Nor-
man vassals. The distinction he sought to confer in
the nuptials of his favourite Montgomery with the
dowager duchess of Gloucester, was one only of the
examples which led to the supposition/ that at that
period he viewed the spirit of national jealousy with
disapprobation and pain. He was equally anxious at
the same time to adopt the language of the Angle-
Saxons, if we are to believe some of the Norman
writers, in the national councils and courts of law; and
it is asserted that previously to the reign of Henry III.
we cannot discover a deed or law drawn or composed in
French. Instead of prohibiting the English language,
it was employed by the Conqueror and his successors in
their charters, until the reign of Henry II.8 There is
no doubt that at the outset of his reign he obtained the
reputation of a just and moderate prince ; but his pro-
fessions were soon too painfully contrasted with his
actions to permit the national delusion to last. Wil-
liam, like his great barons, began to convert his feudal
privileges and wardship into a source of gain. These
singular rights or incidents of feudalism did not exist
in England before the Conquest; they were till then
peculiar to France and Normandy. Seizing the lands
in wardship, and selling the heiress in marriage to the

7 Quarterly Review, v. 34, p. 260 ; Hallam ; Alison.

8 Quarterly Review, v. 34, p. 262, 3 ; Wilkins ; Hoveden.

216 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

highest offer, though not legal, was of frequent occur-
rence.9

The presence of Edgar Atheling and other English
princes and earls never appeared to give the slightest
uneasiness or umhrage to the Conqueror. Till the fatal
change in his policy and counsels, he had confirmed
them in their former dignities, and invariably treated
the Saxon heir with the consideration due to a near
relative and descendant of the pious Edward. This
change was greatly to be regretted. It interfered with
the union between the two people, and obstructed those
intermarriages which were becoming general, and would
have extended to other ranks and to the masses — a
result which did not take place for nearly a century
and a half afterwards. Ducarel, in his curious account
of the old Norman families, gives us some interesting
anecdotes respecting the intimate connection then sub-
sisting between England and Normandy. William,
in 1054, had founded a Benedictine abbey dedicated
to St. Michael, and another of the same name was built
soon after his arrival in England. A Cluniac priory had
been erected at his request at Longueville, in Normandy,
by Guiffard, subsequently Earl of Buckingham, who after
the Conquest raised a counterpart to it at Longueville in
England. Albemarle, a village in the Bresle, four leagues
from Rouen, curtailed into Aumale, gave to a long line
of French and English nobility a title which is now
borne by a French prince and by an English earl. In
1063 William had consecrated the cathedral of Caen to
the Holy Virgin, in presence of his queen and court,

9 Hallam, Middle Ages, ii. 115 ; Smythe ; Alison ; Stat. of Merton,
1236 ; Chron. Sax.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 217

and a large body of his lords and prelates. In England
it was his ambition to found edifices of a similar charac-
ter ; and, by the prosecution of such plans, the interests
and property of the two people would have become
earlier blended, in conjunction with their habits, fashions,
and amusements. Like a new graft upon some noble
stem, they would soon have been absorbed and become
part of the national tree. For some time mutual pos-
sessions and family connections prevailed in both coun-
tries ; and it was this growing union which rendered a
knowledge of the Norman history and manners so
essential to a clear appreciation of those of the English.
It is remarkable how this forced intercourse, in the first
instance, gave rise to close resemblances of names and
titles, and to near relationship in families wholly igno-
rant of their common descent, and who, with their
collateral branches, have many a time since engaged
each other in deadly wars, and shed their kindred blood
in the battle-field.1

It has been remarked that, for some time after the
Conquest, the county courts for the distribution of
justice, though greatly modified by William, were still
retained. They soon fell into insignificance as courts
of law, but did not cease to be of importance on account
of the new functions attributed to them of electing she-
riffs, coroners, and knights of the shire. The observa-
tion of Hume, that the institution of county courts
has had greater effects in the government than have yet
been distinctly pointed out by historians or traced by
antiquaries, is not without foundation. To these courts
may be ascribed that mutual sympathy and community
of interest between the freeholders and the great barons

1 Ducarel, fol. ed. ; Thierry ; Sismondi ; L'Art de Verifier les Dates.

218 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

in their joint struggles against the Crown, so remarkable
in the history of England, and so fortunate in their
results to public liberty.2

To the same institution, at a subsequent period, we
owe the formation of a representative body peculiar to
this country, which long served as a connecting link
between the military aristocracy and the peaceful and
industrious classes of the community ; and, when finally
merged in the representation of the cities and boroughs
it contributed to elevate the great body of the nation
to that weight and importance in the State, which
have been the main source of all that is excellent or
admirable in our constitution.3

To the early modifications introduced by the Con-
queror into this institution, as into so many others of
Anglo-Saxon origin, with whatever interested views,
we are perhaps indebted for some of those advantages,
and the degree of freedom and national distinction
as compared with other nations, which we now
enjoy. While blaming therefore the arbitrary con-
duct, the ambition, avarice, and revenge, manifested
during the progress of his reign, we must not be
insensible to William's exalted merits as a lawgiver
and a statesman, as a great ruler, capable of dis-
playing a master-mind both in the cabinet and in
the field, but the lustre of whose great qualities was
dimmed and almost defaced by the darkness of his
passions. In those party estimates of his character
and of his conquest which have tended to confuse
rather than to throw light upon the real influence ex-
ercised by William upon the laws and institutions of

2 Edinburgh Review, v. 26 ; Thierry ; Hallam ; Alison ; Sismondi ;
Smyth ; Brodie. * Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 219

the country, there have not been wanting writers to
assert that he ascended the throne by the most indefea-
sible of all titles — conquest — and ruled, and was enti-
tled to rule, as an absolute sovereign. He accordingly
enacted laws, imposed taxes, and administered justice
agreeably to his own will and pleasure, with no greater
restraint from legal institutions than the present king
of Denmark or the autocrat of the B/ussias. To such
advocates the question seems never to have occurred,
by what possible right could a duke of Normandy, with
very limited authority in his own country, raised to the
throne of England by the help of independent adven-
turers, feudal vassals, like himself, of the King of France,
attracted to his standard by the promise of lands and
honours, at once convert himself into a despotic arbiter
of the lives and fortunes, not only of the conquered,
but of the conquerors. Certainly not by means of the
feudal system, for William was not the first to intro-
duce its principles into England. He established, it is
true, knight service, and introduced some feudal inci-
dents till then unknown to the Saxons. Many parts
of the system existed in England before his arrival.
Beneficiary possessions were familiar to the Saxons.
Feudal homage is repeatedly mentioned in their chroni-
cles and charters, and even the word vassal occurs as early
as the time of Alfred. Privileged jurisdictions are fre-
quently alluded to in their laws ; fines for alienations,
and even escheats in certain cases were not unknown
to them. Reliefs are described at length in the laws
of Canute, under the name of heriots.

The feudal system was, in some degree, taking the
same course in England, before the Conquest, which it
pursued among the other nations of Europe, and there

220 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

seems little doubt that, though the Norman invasion
had never happened, the same causes which diffused it
over the continent would have established it in nearly
the same forms in England.4

If the system had been a political arrangement con-
trived for the purpose of paramount arbitrary control
in the Crown, how came it to be adopted by a body of
high-spirited warriors, proud of their independence, and
impatient even of just restraint ? Does the answer of
earl Warenne to the commissioners of Edward I. imply
that such notions were entertained of the Conqueror in
an age not far removed in time from his own ? When
that great baron was required to show his title to his
estate, he drew his sword, observing that William the
Bastard did not conquer the kingdom for himself alone,
but that the barons, and his ancestor among the rest,
were joint adventurers in the enterprise. And, in the
last place, who ever heard of the feudal system being
favourable to absolute monarchy? To a landed oli-
garchy it may be so indeed.5

But William was no common monarch. In spite of
the protection of their feudal privileges, he brought the
petty tyrants under his masterly sway, and was almost
the sole European sovereign of his age who bridled both
the prelate and the baron, and held them in complete
subjection to the yoke of the Crown. In vain they
pleaded and protested, asserted their seignorial rights,
rose in arms, and even joined in conspiracies with the
Saxon earls, the Norman malcontents with the French
princes, to throw off his stern dominion, and exercise
the same unbridled power as the great foreign vassals

4 Edinburgh Review, 26, 169-79; Hume; Henry; Tyrrell; Liii-
gard ; Mackintosh ; Alison ; Brodie. 5 Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 221

under weaker paramount rule. They had not even the
satisfaction of retaliating in full upon their subordinate
vassals; for the comparatively free institutions of the
English, upheld by William as far as he found them to
be consistent with his sovereign aggrandisement, and
strengthened by the strict discipline of the royal army
and the police, opposed a barrier to their excesses and
their absolute will. Some of them, in their discontent,
followed the example of the self-exiled English lords,
and retired to their estates in Normandy, leaving Wil-
liam to fill up their places with more loyal adherents,6 to
add to the number of his great vassals, and thus to
swell the amount of his royal rent-roll — his grand and
almost sole object after his accession to the English
crown. Even here Fortune smiled upon his efforts.
Instead of dissipating his resources, or submitting to
solicit or enforce extraordinary aid, he offered a rare
exception to the improvidence of contemporary sove-
reigns, and to the mean expedients and neediness of so
many of his successors. He grasped boldly, confiscated
largely, and put up his crown lands to the highest bid-
ders ; but this he did at the expense of the great lords
who had offended him, not of the people who by such a
summary process were often relieved from despotic and
grinding extortioners, and became at least serfs and
vassals of the Crown.7

6 It was this indignation at the restriction of their feudal power in
England which induced some of them to declare that they would no longer
join in robbing and despoiling the English, for they had land enough to
cultivate at home. Roger de Beaumont, and a few others, declined to
follow the expedition at all.

7 In one sense the popular character of William's government was
shown by the number of courts and parliaments held during his reign.
King William I., in the sixth year of his reign, held his court at Win-

222 WILLIAM THE CONQUEEOE.

In conformity with his views of checking the unbridled
power and spoliations of his barons, William early
adopted measures to raise up the antagonist influence of
corporate bodies, which he clearly saw could not fail to
replenish his exchequer to an equal or greater extent
than his vassals of the soil. He confirmed the existing
privileges of the city of London, and those of the prin-
cipal towns throughout the kingdom. In regard to
the nature of these privileges, if we may believe con-
temporary writers, they contained within them the
germs of popular power, and established a sort of gra-
duated scale of civil liberty, by which the slow rise from

Chester, at the feast of Easter. There the great cause between Lanfranc,
archbishop of Canterbury, and Thomas, archbishop of York, concerning
the primacy, was first entered upon. At the Whitsuntide following,
the king held his court at Windsor ; and there that cause was determined
in the presence of the king, and of divers bishops and others. \Ex Autogr.
in Archive Ecclesice Ckristi Oantuar. The tenor of this instrument may
be also seen in Malm. Hist., 1. iii. p. 117.] In the nineteenth year of his
reign, at Christmas, he held his court at Gloucester, at Easter at Win-
chester, at Whitsuntide at London or Westminster ; and knighted his
son Henry, and took homage of all the land-holders of England, to whose
fee soever they belonged, and afterwards fealty ; and then, having levied
great sums of money upon such of his subjects as were really or colourably
obnoxious, he went into Normandy. [Rudbom, Hist. Winton apud Anyl.
Sax., t. i. p. 258.] In or about the year 1085, at Christmas, he held his
court (with his nobles) [C'hron. Sax. (E. Gibson, ad A.D. 1085] at Glou-
cester, where he gave bishoprics to three of his chaplains, viz., to Maurice
that of London, to William that of Thetford, to Robert that of Chester.
In the next year, he commanded the prelates, barons, and sheriffs, with
their knights, to meet him at Salisbury, and there he took an oath of
fealty of their knights. [Hoved., P. I. 460, n. 20, 30.] He was a very
magnificent prince, and wore his crown three times a year, when he was
in England ; at Easter he wore it at Winchester, at Whitsuntide at
Westminster, and at Christmas at Gloucester. And at those times there
used to be with him all the great men of England ; archbishops and
bishops, abbots and earls, themes and knights. [Chron Sax. p. 190, ad
ann. 1086.] — Madox, History of the Exchequer.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 223

serfdom may be said to have been first ensured. This,
however, was pre-eminently the work of Christianity/
at the period of the introduction of which into England
no people was more deeply imbruted in the revolting
horrors of idolatry, slavery, ignorance, and superstition.
How strong must the servile spirit, the peculiar stain
and reproach of paganism, have been, when even in the
national contract of Magna Charta, where the privileges
of the barons and the freemen were so anxiously pro-
vided for, no stipulation of any importance was made for
the extensive class of husbandmen and slaves ! 9 For
these, the Conquest and the subsequent extension of the
feudal tenures laid the foundation of future emancipa-
tion ; and the free classes of English yeomanry, citizens,
and civilians, received fresh importance, and were re-
cruited from the ranks of those fair-haired Saxon slaves
who had once been publicly exposed for sale at Rome.
The brilliant and imposing court, which William soon
afterwards displayed, gave to his first popular measures
a fresh but illusory charm. They were received as an
earnest, we are told, of the enlightened and impartial
pclicy of his future government. And it was natural
thjat a delusion so agreeable should be readily cherished,
whether we regard the splendour of the new monarch's
military regulations, the vast results of such a victory,

8 A singular anecdote relating to this memorable event has been re-
corded. An embassy of British idolaters, before proceeding to meet
Augustine, the Papal envoy, consulted a neighbouring hermit upon the
subject. " If on your arrival," he said, " Augustine rises to salute you,
he is a messenger from God ; but if he do not, he is proud, and have no
more to do with him." « Verily," adds the writer, " this ancient recluse
was no fool." — Vest. Ang. i. 97 ; Sir J. Mackintosh. It is pleasing to
reflect that the fair sex had the merit of introducing Christianity into the
most considerable kingdoms of the heptarchy. — Ibid.

9 Alison, i. 44.

224 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

an event so memorable, and a revolution so complete,
all was calculated to impress the imagination and awe
the mind ; and we cannot wonder that the English at
first turned their eyes to the brighter side of the picture,
too happy in applauding the politic clemency and justice
which had too short a date. The completion of the
chain of fortresses with which he drew round the van-
quished an iron cordon, serving both for exterior and
internal defence ; his dismissal of Englishmen from their
offices, his placing the command of the castles and the
government of towns and districts in the hands of the
Normans, and his confiscation of the lands of the Earl
of Gloucester and other noblemen, dispelled their agree-
able presages with a rude hand. The restoration, like-
wise, of the Anglo-Saxon fortresses,1 comparatively
neglected, with the rapid construction of camps and
barracks, in stations selected to overawe the chief
towns, gradually opened the eyes of the people to the
real nature of William's designs. It annoyed them to
reflect that they were subjected to Frenchmen, for so the
Normans were designated, and the latter were them-
selves prouder of that distinction than of their fraternity
with a greater people. They were called so likewise in
the laws of William, and in the charters of that prince

1 The Normans, magnificent as they were, seem at first to have entered
this country with ideas of fortification quite different from and inferior to
those of the Saxons ; though they afterwards adopted the latter, and even
greatly improved upon them. Their first castles and their first style of
architecture are almost everywhere to be distinguished. Descended
from the Danes, they still retained Danish ideas, and considered the high
mount as the most essential part of the fortress. As therefore the high
insulated hill is characteristic of almost every Danish camp, so the same
kind of hill, as the basis of a round tower, is characteristic of all the first
Norman castles. — Archseologia, vol. vi. 237 ; Stowe's Annals j Vestigia
Ang.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 225

and of his successors for a century after the Conquest.
By adoption at least they were in all things French.2

From this epoch the old Saxon aristocracy and serf-
dom were slowly superseded by the graduated scale of
feudal tenures, and its concentrating, exclusive, and class
laws, which struck their roots vigorously into the English
•soil. All the important points from which danger was
apprehended were compelled to receive garrisons; nor
was the rigid discipline introduced by the Conqueror
into his military and police establishments less vigor-
ously enforced with regard to the civil administration
of the country. Before March, 1067, and within six
months after his landing, William had succeeded in
planting his power firmly upon the institutions of the
people; in laying the foundation of a new system of
government, the introduction, or rather extension, of
feudal tenures ; and in smoothing the way, as he hoped,
for the adoption of the Norman laws, usages, and lan-
guage.3 Peace and order, under the dark shadow of
his severe military rule, were apparently restored
throughout the length and breadth of the land.

But the Conquest had not yet given rise to the esta-
blishment of the feudal system in all its rigours. Nor
had the Pope succeeded in extending his temporal
supremacy in this remote island, as it was then con-
sidered, in the manner which was subsequently attempted
both in William's reign and in that of his successors.
Still, in England as in the rest of Europe, the feudal

2 Seldeni Spicelegia ad Edmerium, 196 ; Charta Henrici II. in libro
rubro Scaccarii ; Henry, Hist, of Brit. iii. 554.

3 We are nevertheless told of a very praiseworthy effort upon the part
of William, similar to that of the elder Cato with the Greek ; namely,
that he endeavoured in advanced life to learn English, the better to ad-
minister justice ; but failed on account of his age. — Orel. Vit. 520.

VOL. I. Q

£26 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

system and the papal power were making rapid strides,
though in the former country they were attended with
some fortunate peculiarities, some advantages to coun-
terbalance their evils — evils which in other States proved
such serious impediments to the improvement of human
happiness.4

Early in his reign, about the same period, William
is stated to have followed the example of Canute the
Great, by re-enacting and confirming the statutes of
his predecessors ; and we must consider the laws which
are extant under his name as closing the series of mo
numents of Anglo-Saxon legislation.5 How these were
subsequently evaded and became a mere dead letter is
shown by the best contemporary authorities. But the
people now with one accord repeatedly demanded the
restoration of the laws and customs known and used by
them, such as had prevailed, they declared, in the days
of holy king Edward the Confessor. With these requi-
sitions, William, like his successors, ostensibly complied;
and a statute or capitulary, purporting to contain the
laws and customs which king William granted to the
people of England 6 after the Conquest, being the same
which king Edward his cousin maintained before him,
has been preserved in Romance and in Latin. Both
texts agree so closely as to show that the one is a trans-
lation of the other. The Latin text is yet extant in
manuscript. The Romance or French text, which was
published by Selden, with a Latin version, and after-
wards byLambard and Wilkins,from the history ascribed
to Ingulphus, has long enjoyed the reputation of being
the original. If so, the code, would be indeed a testi-

4 Smythe, Lee. v. 116-17. 5 Quarterly Review," vol. xxxiv. 260.

6 Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 227

mony both of English liberty and English servitude ;
for, whilst it proves that William respected the Saxon
laws, it affords evidence of the plan which he is said to
have formed for the extirpation of the English tongue.7
Early in the same year, the Conqueror became de-
sirous of revisiting Normandy. He was naturally
anxious to rejoin his consort, to whom he was ardently
attached, as well as to display to the eyes of his Norman
court and vassals the wealth and splendour of the spoils
of England, and to enjoy the fame of his mighty conquest.8
In the appointment of his council of Regency and
governors during his absence, he exhibited the profound
policy by which his conduct was invariably distin-
guished. While he left agents of a character liable to
goad the English into insurrection, he was careful to
provide against all danger by taking with him the most
influential of the Saxon nobility, including Edgar Athe-
ling. He also received the homage of his great vassals
and other Norman subjects, previously to setting out ;
made a progress through different counties ; and con-
firmed the two earls Edwin and Morcar, earl Coxo,
lord Edric, surnamed the Forester, and others, in pos-
session of their honours and estates. In many places
he received at public assemblies the fealty of different
classes of his subjects, through deputations and the
heads of corporate bodies whose privileges he had con-
firmed, conducting himself towards them "with the
most engaging affability."9 He assured them that he

7 Quarterly Review, xxxiv. 261 ; Lingard ; Henry ; Mackintosh ;
Hallam ; Brodie ; Alison ; Smythe.

8 Henry ; Kennet ; Hume ; W. Pict. ; Ord. Vit. ; Chron. Sax.

9 W. of Malms. ; W. Pict. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ;
Chron. Sax. ; S. Duiielm ; Walsingham ; Ypodigma.

Q 2

228 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

had been at great pains to restrain his followers from
abusing his power or inflicting either injuries or insults
on his English subjects.

It is difficult to reconcile these popular professions
with the measures he adopted subsequently to the
English outbreaks ; and by many writers his motives in
regard to revisiting Normandy at this period have
been considered strange and unaccountable. But if we
reflect that his newly-acquired power was not yet fully
consolidated ; that, by fresh confiscations, the fruits of
insurrection, he might extend his prerogatives, and per-
haps achieve the absolute sovereignty at which he
aimed; his conduct will be found consistent with the
policy he had uniformly pursued. Fatal as was the battle
of Hastings, it had not left him undisputed master of
the kingdom. The English submitted only upon con-
ditions ; and, as he had assumed the crown, he was still
compelled to reign in the character of a constitutional
sovereign; to summon the usual councils and county
assemblies ; and, in point of forms, to respect the laws,
liberties, and usages of the Anglo-Saxons — a government
which, however imperfect, was at variance with the
spirit of unqualified feudal despotism predominant in
France and Normandy. Hence William's hesitation to
accept the crown, offered upon such conditions : he
trusted to attain by policy what it was dangerous to
avow and enforce — the paramount feudal sovereignty
exercised by his ancestors. A profound master of dis-
simulation, he resolved to proceed step by step; to
excite revolts by the rapacity and oppressions of his
governors, and, by extending the bounds of confiscation,
gradually to absorb the entire political power, and, with
the help of his great barons and prelates, the property

"WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 229

of his English subjects. With such views, he selected
as his regents the most rapacious and ruthless of his
Normans ; and, if other proofs of this deep-laid project
were wanting, the key to unlock his secret motives is to
be found in the use he afterwards made of the services
of men compelled to yield up to their employer the
treasures of which they had despoiled the people. These
were bishop Odo, his half-brother, and Fitzosborne,
both equally cruel and overbearing ; who, when the work
assigned to them was completed, were, under different
pretexts, deprived of their liberty and their estates.
They obtained the name of " the Conqueror's sponges •"
but the deluded people, laying the blame upon their spe-
cial misgovernment, attributed their punishment to the
king's regard for justice rather than to his tyranny and
insatiable rapacity. The self-exile of the English
nobles, and the forfeiture of their estates, were only the
forerunners of the Norman proscription, of the death of
the Earl of Northumberland, and the revolt of Fitz-
osborne and other leaders. Yet, with consummate art,
William reconciled this virtual tyranny with an appa-
rently respectful observance of existing laws. Nor was
there a measure of severity or confiscation which he
did not regularly submit to the discussion of his great
councils, in which his ministerial power was all but
supreme.

Having completed his arrangements, the Conqueror
embarked where he had first landed, at Pevensey, to-
wards the end of March, 1067. ' He was escorted by a
gallant squadron, attended by a splendid train of nobles
of both countries, and a vast collection of the spoils of

1 Chron. de Nor. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. Sax. ; Ord. Vit. ; W.
Pict.

230 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

the vanquished,, to excite the admiration and please the
fancy of the queen and her Norman court.2 The retinue
he had selected was well adapted to impress his favourite
Normans with ideas of English wealth and power, and,
by the studied display of the Anglo-Saxon princes and
earls at his chariot wheels, to raise a still higher opinion
of his resistless energies, talents, and success. It is a
proof of his unerring penetration that they were the
very men whom he had most reason to dread, and who,
had he left them at home to head the people in his
absence, might have converted a premeditated revolt for
politic purposes into a new revolution. They were pre-
cisely those from whom he experienced the most un-
easiness, and who ultimately rose in arms against him ;
Edgar Atheling, Stigand the archbishop, the brother
earls Edwin and Morcar, and all their adherents. To
give lustre to his mighty triumph,3 he treated his tall
and handsome prisoners, for such they really were, with
extraordinary deference and respect. He introduced
them to his queen and the ladies of her court, who con-
cealed not their admiration of their manly beauty, their
piercing blue eyes, fair hair, and brilliant complexion.4
Though really brought " to swell the triumph and par-
take the gale" of William's fortunes, their merit and
accomplishments soon attracted general admiration, not
unaccompanied, in many instances, with sentiments of
a warmer nature. The ladies, who had been so long

2 Chron. de Nor. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. Sax. ; Ord. Vit. ; W.
Pict.

3 W. Pict. ; W. of Malms. ; S. Dunelm ; Walsingham ; Ypodigma.

4 In this admiration the Norman beauties of Queen Matilda's court
seem to have agreed with the great historian Tacitus, who, in his descrip-
tion of the Saxons, by no means omitted those graces which struck their
fancy.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 231

deserted by their lovers and husbands, had now an
opportunity of expressing their feelings, and avenging
themselves for past neglects by more than vain re-
proaches; and not a few transferred the pangs of
jealousy from their own breasts to those of their too
careless lords.

Then, the quantity of gold and silver plate, of the
most elegant and exquisite workmanship, for which the
English were already famous ; the profusion and splen-
dour of the fabrics; the magnificence of the Saxon
nobles, and of the king's officers and body-guards, sur-
passed everything of the kind before seen. The queen's
love of ostentation, encouraged by the pride and politic
motives of her consort, appeared to greater advantage
by the contrast of this extraordinary union of the beauty
and chivalry of the two nations ; and the series of bril-
liant festivals which followed, drew also to the Norman
court immense numbers of the higher ranks from the
surrounding states.

The affable, yet dignified deportment of William, and
the fascinating manners and brilliant accomplishments
of his queen, filled even their illustrious guests with ad-
miration and delight. This was the true way, if con-
sistently adhered to, of softening down national asperi-
ties. The same festivities were repeated at Caen, at
Fecamp, at Falaise, and at Rouen, after which the king
and queen proceeded in a sort of triumphal progress,
surrounded by English and Norman suites,5 through the
chief towns and cities of their states.

The ceremonies of their receiving fealty from the
citizens and neighbouring vassals were conducted on
this occasion with much regal pomp, carried to a still

5 Chron. de Nor.; Hist, de Nor.; W. Pick; W. of Malms.; Ord. Vit.

232 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

higher pitch by the obsequious deportment of Philip,
Kingof France. Philip had despatched his uncle Rodolph,
at the head of a noble embassy, to congratulate the new
monarch, whose failure he had so confidently predicted,
not as his English vassal, but as a brother and an equal,
who had successfully forced his way within the verge
of "that divinity which doth hedge a king."

The Conqueror entertained the French nobles with
extraordinary magnificence, and returned with them in
the same royal state to his Norman capital, whither his
fair consort, attended by Roger de Beaumont,6 and
other members of the Regency, had repaired to welcome
them. The enthusiastic plaudits of the people must
have sounded harshly in the ears of the English nobles,
thus painfully reminded of the influence and power of
the Conqueror. They must have felt diminished con-
fidence in the efforts of their countrymen to throw off
a yoke so galling, so oppressive, and so humiliating to
a great people.

The archiepiscopal see of Rouen, becoming vacant
about this period by the death of Maurille, was offered
by William to the celebrated Lanfranc, and, on his
declining it, was conferred upon John, bishop of
Avranches. But before William had time to adopt any
measures of importance with regard to a more intimate
connection between the two countries, and to recruit hi&
Norman troops in England, his attention was recalled
from courtly festivities and family enjoyments to the
field of action, by no very unexpected news from Eng-

6 This noble, called Roger le Barbu, for not adopting the new Nor-
man fashion, had preferred to remain at home, and sent his son on the
expedition. He was president of the Norman council, and united with
Matilda in the regency ; rumour scrupled not to say in a more tender
union, but without any apparent authority.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 233

land.7 The illegal acts of the subordinate authorities under
the Crown, and other vassals/ with the pride and tyranny
of the new governors, had goaded on the people from
murmurs and complaints into open revolt ; and no con-
ciliatory measures had been resorted to by the Regency.
The Kentish men, yet mindful of their once free and
happy state, were joined by Eustace, Earl of Boulogne,
and made an attempt to surprise the town and castle of
Dover.9 Edric the Forester rose upon the Norman
captains in Herefordshire;1 and earl Coxo was soon
afterwards put to death by his own followers, for per-
sisting in his submission to the new government. The
English on all sides were preparing for revolt; the
Normans who fell into their hands were put to death,
and the renewal of a general massacre, as on former
occasions with regard to the Danes, was the subject of
secret discussion.2 The presence of William was im-
peratively called for by the oppressors who had conjured
up but could not allay the storm ; and, having appointed
his son Robert and his consort joint regents, he set sail
from Dieppe on the sixth of December, and landed on
the seventh3 at Winchelsea. Hence he hastened to
London, and by thus appearing so unexpectedly, awed
the malcontents, and confirmed the wavering, and, aifect-
ing the utmost calmness and affability, held his royal
Christmas as was customary. The mere report of his
arrival threw discord and contention into the ranks of
the disaffected ; and complete tranquillity, or rather the

7 Hist, de Nor. ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Vie de Guillaume.

3 Many in the reign of William held by a mesne tenure small freeholds
and parcels of manors. — Hume ; Lingard ; Hallam, ii. 162 ; Alison j
Smythe.

9 Ord. Vit. ; W. Pict. ; Walsingham. a Hoveden, Annal. 258.

2 W. of Malms.; W. Pict.; Ord. Vit. 3 Ord. Vit. 509. ,-'

234 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

silence of a sudden truce, was restored. It was destined,
however, to be as speedily broken ;4 the extreme calmness
and affability of William were deceitful, and only fore-
boded the tempest.

Early in the succeeding year, 1068, the revolts were
renewed; but William was not taken unawares, nor
was he suddenly provoked into acts of injustice. He
proceeded upon system ; he even restored some estates
which had been wrested from the English during his
absence ; while he enforced with increased diligence the
strictness of his military discipline and of his police.5

Among other regulations, it has been asserted that
William introduced that of the couvre-feu; and that it
was now for the first time in England that

« The curfew toll'd the knell of parting day;"

but it is well known that the same custom was observed
in France, Spain, and other European countries, and
that it was no novelty to the Anglo-Saxons themselves.6

4 Ord. Vit. 509.

5 It was not, however, so efficient as that established by king Alfred in
the hundreds and tithings, which united the benefit of complete protection
with the principle of self-government, opposed alike to feudal and despotic
oppression. Like Alfred, the Norman punished every kind of malversa-
tion in his officers, and not a few of the most notorious for bribery and
corruption exchanged places with the prisoners, were tried, and put to
death. — Miroir des Justices ; Vestigia Anglicana.

6 The police act, as relating to the article of the couvre-feu, was, " 1. At
the hour of seven, at the sound of bell, all citizens and villagers to put out
fire and candle ; not to leave their own dwellings on pain of death ; for
the better suppression of assassinations and seditions." This admirable
instrument of a despotic government is stated to have originated with
the Council of Caen, and to have been adopted on account of the insur-
rections of the barons, though it fell with double punishment upon the
people. It was emphatically termed " God's peace,'" and formed part of
William's edict for the suppression of brawls and murders throughout
his dominions. The curfew is still tolled in some districts of Nor-

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 235

It was the same with the odious and oppressive tax of
the Danegelt, revived to replenish the royal treasury,
considerably exhausted by the vast sums expended
during the visit to Normandy, such as not even the
expected confiscations were sufficient to supply. The
embers of revolt were still smouldering, and the arbitrary
conduct of the barons at length fanned them into open
flame. The English could ill brook so galling a bond-
age as the curfew/ enforced under such penalties, and
still less the renewal of the Danish tax -, a lasting me-
morial of their humiliation and their misery. This last
was exacted also in direct violation of a law of Edward,
which the Conqueror had sworn scrupulously to respect.
And thus the confidence reposed in him for his first
apparent efforts to administer impartial justice was for
ever destroyed. Though levied in the southern districts,
it was found impracticable to raise the tax in Northum-
berland; nor were William's new edicts much better
obeyed in other parts of the country.8 The people of
Exeter, at the instigation of Harold's mother, Githa,
seized the fortress, and invoked the adjacent country to
rise and join in the revolt. The Conqueror hastened to
the scene of danger, and, after a siege of eighteen days,

mandy, where it is called La Retraite. — Ord. Vit. ; Cassan ; Polydore
Virgil ; Ducarel.

7 The curfew was generally used also as a precaution against fire.
The tenements were then built almost wholly of wood. But as so much
obloquy early attached to the couvre-feu, it was doubtless the severe
method of enforcing the custom, and at an earlier hour than was usual
among the Saxons, which gave so much offence.

8 William, at this period, and for some time afterwards, affected to base
all his proceedings upon legal and established foundations. This was the
cause that, in the projected wreck of the English liberties, some vestiges of
the ancient usages and constitution still remained. — Mackintosh ; Hallam ;
Alison ; Lingard ; Brodie ; Smythe.

236 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

compelled the insurgents to submit and implore his
mercy; while Githa, with all her treasures — a prize he
would willingly have secured— escaped into Flanders.9

William next marched into Cornwall, and, having
suppressed the last symptoms of revolt, returned to
Winchester to hold the Easter festival with his royal
consort, who had arrived from Normandy. Their joint
coronation, as William had promised, on a more splen-
did scale, was celebrated in the abbey of Westminster,1
on Whitsunday in the year 1068. In the same year
the queen was delivered of a fourth son, who was bap-
tised by the name of Henry, and who afterwards-
ascended the English throne.

The following months, spent alternately at Berk-
hampstead, at Windsor, or in the New Forest, were
perhaps among the few most tranquil and free from
anxiety of any in this king's active and stormy career.
Happy in a consort devotedly attached to him, and in
his young family, both destined to cause him so much
misery at no distant period, and successful in all
the objects of his government, he had now time to
mature those ulterior measures which he had so long
contemplated. He had reaped the fruits of insurrection
and added to his power ; he was ambitious of becoming
a lawgiver as well as a practical despot \ and he pre-
pared a new code, of which the feudal and military
tenures, with the addition of the Norman usages and
language, were to form the basis. . This mixed code, as
the groundwork of our liberties, is extremely curious
and interesting, well deserving the ample and laborious

9 Ord. Vit. 510; Chron. Sax. A.D. 1068.

1 We omit the details, which are very fully and pleasingly dwelt upon
by Miss Strickland, in her amusing " Lives of the Queens of England."

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 237

discussion of so many able writers, and of almost all
our legal and other journals up to the present day.
The grand division of the inhabitants of England was
into freemen and slaves. But there were many bodies of
men named in the Saxon laws and in Doomsday Book,
whom it is somewhat difficult to arrange in either class ;
they are the Bordars, Cottars, &c. It is the opinion of
a most ingenious person that the Ceorles 2 were slaves.
A profound investigator of Saxon antiquities, with much
more likelihood, believes that the villeins of the Saxons
were not, as in later times, slaves, but cultivators of the
soil ; an opinion which had long ago been embraced by
Mr. Burke.3

It is known that during the reign of William, the
commune concilium was held ex more at the fixed court
festivals of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas. If any
national concern was discussed in that assembly, it was
on these occasions. There is, however, hardly any
account of the proceedings, unless sometimes on eccle-
siastical affairs.4

When the monkish historians inform us that the
council was held, they seldom add more than a short
sentence stating the business for which it met and the
result of its deliberations. But from this negative evi-
dence— from the brevity of historians and the loss of
records — it would be wrong to conclude that no discus-
sions took place in those assemblies except on church
affairs, and that in other matters the will of the king
was the supreme law which no one ventured to oppose.

2 Churls. — Sir J. Mackintosh ; Brodie ; Alison ; Hallam.

3 This view is also maintained by a deep-read and well-informed lawyer.
See Heywood's Ranks among the Ang. Sax. 292-294; Sir J. Mackintosh,
Hist, of Eng. i. 76, 7.

4 Histor. Reflections by Mr. Jopp, &c.

238 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

There is sufficient authority for supposing that such was
not the fact.5 The discussion of the affairs of the king-
dom is emphatically alluded to, and the course of busi-
ness is described. In one of the councils of William we
have left us a special account of some proceedings of
great moment, in which there was a difference of
opinion between the king and the other members of the
council, and where, after much deliberation, he was
graciously pleased to yield to the wishes of his people
and the prayers of his baronage. In the preamble to
the laws, ascribed to Edward the Confessor, we are told
that the Conqueror, in the fourth year of his reign, by
the advice of his barons, appointed twelve noble, wise,
and learned Englishmen to be chosen by every county
in England ; and directed them to appear before himself
and council, and there declare on oath what were the
ancient laws and customs of their country, suppressing
nothing, adding nothing, altering nothing. When those
commissioners had made their report, the king was
inclined to prefer the Danish law to the Saxon, because
it was more analogous to the law of Normandy. The
commissioners entreated that they might be permitted
to preserve the laws of their forefathers, in which they
had been educated. The king at first refused, but,
after a protracted debate, at the express instance of his
barons, he acquiesced in their demand.6

With regard to the separation of the ecclesiastical from
the civil jurisdiction, we can have no better authority
than the Conqueror's own words. In a proclamation
to the sheriffs and freeholders of Essex, Hertfordshire,

5 Hist. Reflections, &c. by Mr. Jopp ; Florence of Worcester ; Ead-
mer ; Lingard ; Henry ; Mackintosh ; Edin. Review ; Alison j Smythe.]

6 Wilkins, 197-207 ; Edin. Review, vol. xxvi. passim.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 239

and Middlesex, lie expressly says that, finding the
episcopal laws of England neither good in themselves
nor consistent with the sacred canons, he had them
amended by the advice of his common council, the
council of his archbishops, his other bishops and abbots,
and all the chief men of his kingdom. He goes on to
say, " and I therefore, in virtue of my royal authority,
command and direct that no bishop or archdeacon shall
any more treat of the episcopal laws in meetings of the
hundred." 7

Knight's service was in a similar manner imposed by
the common council of the kingdom. Among the laws
ascribed to the Conqueror, there are two that relate to
the due performance of this service ; and both of these
state, in the most direct terms, that knight's fees were
granted in hereditary right, with certain services
annexed to them " by the common council of our whole
kingdom." Modern authors are too apt to consider the
introduction of knight's service as an intolerable impo-
sition. They forget that, before the Conquest, all lands
were subjected to the trinoda necessitous, one part of
which consisted in the obligation of military service.
Knight's service was the introduction of a more fixed and
certain service for one that was less certain and more
indefinite. They forget also that the lands of the
Saxons were in many cases held on lives or by a still
more precarious tenure; and that knight's fees were
granted in perpetuity. The particular year when mili-
tary tenures were made universal over England is more
a matter of curiosity than of importance.8 The opinion
of Sir William Blackstone is the most probable, that

7 In the Latin language, from which we have translated it. Wilkins,
292 ; L. L. Gulielm. Conq. 55, 58, ap. Wilktns. 8 Ibid.

240 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

they were gradually established by the Norman barons
and others in such forfeited lands as they received from
the gift of the Conqueror, and afterwards consented to
by the great council of the nation long after his title
was established. And the conjecture of the same
learned judge, that the era of formally introducing
those tenures was the great council of Sarum in 1085
or 1086, has many circumstances in its favour.9 With
the view therefore of amalgamating the different Codes,
William had the Norman, West- Saxon, Anglo-Saxon,
Danish, and Mercian Code collected and examined;
and finding at the least thirty- six counties throughout
England subject to the last of these, he altered and
reformed some, and engrafted upon others the Norman,
particularly as regarded their jurisdiction and that of
the exchequer.1 He further enacted that all the plead-
ings, edicts, and laws, should be written in French, an
ordinance said to have obtained till 1301, when, in the
reign of Edward I., an act was passed by the English
parliament that it should be superseded by the Latin
and English languages.2 It is well known that, up to
the Conquest, the descent of lands was to all the sons,
and, as far as it appears, to all the daughters alike. There
was no difference also in the hereditary transmission of
lands and goods, at least in reference to the children.
This is clear from the laws of king Edward, confirmed
by the Conqueror ; and it was to replace this subdivi-
sion by the accumulation or monopoly of property to
which he directed his most strenuous efforts ; to destroy

9 See Edin. Review, vol. 26 ; ib. ; Seldeni ad Eadmer, not. et Spiceleg.

1 L'£chequier} a regular court, the authority of which William was the
first of the Norman monarchs to extend and establish.

2 Ord. Vit.; J. Brompt. Col..

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 241

the spirit, and reverse the character of the popular laws
of the Anglo-Saxons, and to perpetuate the feudal sys-
tem by means of property, when its forms and services
should cease. In laying the groundwork of this vast
and complicated scheme, by dint of Norman law and
royal prerogative, William perfectly succeeded. His
lavish charters and grants, and sales of exclusive privi-
leges of every kind — continually re-seized and re-sold —
favoured the growth of trade and commerce only in
certain channels, which benefited the few and gradually
raised up a system of exclusive classes. Having in
addition to the demesnes of the Crown obtained posses-
sion of the forfeited lands, he farmed them out to his
Norman adherents, reserving certain honorary tenures,3
either by baronage, or in knight-service, or serjeantcy,
for the defence of the kingdom. By the changes he
thus introduced, the eldest sons began to succeed to the
whole of the lands in all military tenures, and the feu-
dal constitution, as distinct from the popular, was esta-
blished in England upon the basis of class property ob-
tained by purchase from the Crown.4 William possessing
the greatest property, the royal will was consequently
predominant in the general council, which easily gave
its sanction to the introduction of the new tenures, as
it had done to the additional laws which he promul-
gated.5 He thus prevailed, even without the people's
consent, in assimilating the laws and customs of the two

3 Wright's Tenures, and Sulliv. Lect. ; Hale, Common Law of Eng-
land, p. 253 ; Lambard ; Selden ; Eadmerus De Intestatorum Bonis,
p. 154. 4 Wright's Tenures ; Blackstone, Com. ii. 215.

5 Selden, notes on Eadmerus, 191. The author of the Prologue to the
Grand Custumier thinks it more probable that the laws of Normandy
were derived from England than that ours were derived from thence.
—Sir J. Hall, 129.

VOL. I. R

242 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

countries, the more readily effected by their intimate
and increasing intercourse. They soon became mingled,
not only in marriages and in families, but in the Church,
in the State, in the court, and in councils. There was
a correspondence between the special and general coun-
cils, or parliaments of both nations, by means of which
Normandy gradually merged into the nobler dominion
of England, and received a greater conformity of its
laws to the English than it gave to them.6

Whether aware or not of this result, it is certain that
the Conqueror at this time used all his art and industry
to incorporate his realms into one dominion; and, to
accomplish it the more effectually, he promoted the
emigration of English families into Normandy, as well
as of the Normans into England ; he held his courts
and festivals in both countries; and, while he ruled
himself, arranged so that his queen and eldest son
should often reside and exercise a regency in Normandy.
This, too, he accomplished without any imposition of
laws as a conqueror,7 but upon the assumption of con-
stitutional grounds, in the spirit of the laws of Alfred,
Edgar, and Edward the Confessor, under the sanction
both of the great and the common councils of the
kingdom.8 Even the shadow of a great constitutional
monarchy, like England, soon extended its superiority
over a small feudal duchy,9 increased by mutual com-
munication and a continued intercourse of trade and
commerce. We have also the authority of Sir Edward

6 Sir J. Hall.

" Hale, C. L. 128 ; Lambard ; Wilkins ; Edin. Review ; Quarterly
Review. 8 Selden, Notes on Eadmerus ; Mazeres.

9 Precepts were issued in Normandy to summon persons there to
answer in causes in England ; even for lands and possessions in the former'
—Hale.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 243

Coke, of Selden, N. Bacon, Sir William Temple, Sal-
tern, and the author of the Mirror, to show that William,
however he might modify, by no means originated the
feudal or other laws, especially the tenure by knight-
service, which was of great antiquity, and so considered
in the time of king Alfred.1 Socage service, as appears
from Doomsday Book, under the head of Churches
(Worcester), was long in use before the Conquest ; while
William had the signal merit of rendering the posses-
sions of bishops and abbots subject to knight-service,
which took place in the fourth year of his reign.2 In
treating of the dignity of an earl, and demonstrating
that such service was both feudal and inheritable from
the first arrival of the Saxons in England, William of
Malmsbury calls it Commisswn, and afterwards Com-
mendatum, words which suggest rather a trust than a
feud.3 The names of Thane and Vavasor in the Saxon
times afford the same evidence ; earl, king's thane, and
middle thane succeeded each other in their laws ; and
so count, baron, and vavasor are used as interpreters of
them in the French laws of William I. The king's
thanes held of the king in chief by knight- service, and
were of the same character as the subsequent honorary
or parliamentary barons. A vavasor, in the origin of
feudalism, was only a tenant by knight-service, who
held of a mesne lord,4 or of the king simply, as of an
honour or manor, and not in chief. Bacon is of opinion
that there is no proof of the Normans having changed
the tenures of lands ; none appeared to be of Norman

1 Hale ; Coke, 1 Inst. 76, b, id. 64, 83.

2 Bishop Gibson ; Spelman ; Hale.

3 W. of Malms. ; De Gest. Reg. f. 44,< 46 ; Spelm. Postb.mii. Treat,
of Feuds, 13. * Titles of Honour, 513, 520.

R2

244 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

origin, though their names were in that dialect.5 Temple
maintains that King William neither broke nor changed
the laws of England ; that he introduced no Norman
laws ; that even the duty of escuage existed previously,
and, like all the feudal laws, was brought into Europe
by the Goths, who settled in the provinces of the Roman
empire, by the Saxons in England, by the Franks in
Gaul, and by the Northmen in Normandy.6 The learned
Saltern contends for the existence of conveyances by
feoffment and livery before the Conquest, and of the
feudal distinctions as remote as the days of Gorbonian
the Good ; and for fealty as sworn to the prince, in the
time of Elidurus,7 with its usual tenures, services, and
distresses. The author of the Mirror declares that
tenures were ordained by the Anglo-Saxon kings for
the defence of the realm.8

On the other side, we may adduce the authority of
Sommer, Spelman, Crag, M. Paris, Camden, Hody
Wright, and a host of our modern luminaries of history,
who refer the original of feuds in England for the most
part to the Norman Conquest. Sommer observes that
we owe to the Conqueror the names and customs of our
English fees, or tenures,9 such at least as are military.
M. Paris is still more decided ; and Camden asserts that
the English were dispossessed of their estates by Wil-
liam, and the lands divided among his soldiers, with the
reservation that he should continue direct proprietor, or
lord paramount, permitting them only to be held by his
mesne lords in fee. Dr. Hody observes that " baronies

5 Hist, of the Eng. Gov. 161. 6 Temp. In. of Hist, of Eng. 171, 2.

7 Saltern de Antiquit. Britan. Legibus. c. 8.

8 Mirror, c. 1, sect. 3, 11, 12.

9 Littleton's Tenures ; Treat, of Gov. 100-104.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 245

and such like tenures were first brought into England
by the Conqueror." ' Bracton is of the same opinion ;
and Sir Martin Wright says that William I., in the
twentieth year of his reign, summoned all the great men
and landowners to do homage and swear fealty to him ;
inferring that this was done in consequence of some-
thing new, or that these feudal engagements would have
been required long before; and if so, that it is probable
that feudal tenures were then new.2 Hume, and most of
the English historians, in contra- distinction to Norman
writers, are of opinion that they were introduced by the
Conqueror.3 There can be little doubt that an impartial
inquiry would establish the correctness of the views we
have already taken ; that the historical truth lies pretty
nearly between the two extremes ; and that William in
part introduced and mainly developed, carrying into
their full details, those elements of the feudal power only
partially adopted before, because in great measure at
variance with the laws and institutions of the Anglo-
Saxons ; that William, moreover, imposed the feudal
law as he found it established in France and Normandy,
with all its benefits and its evils ; its germs of constitu-
tional freedom, and its fatal tendencies towards corrup-
tion, monopoly, and class distinctions; its vast and
concentrated power, and masses of wealth, qualified with
just sufficient taste of freedom to develop the energies of
a great insular people. It is in this just medium be-
tween the extreme opposite opinions that the truth may
with most probability be found ; as we find the feudal

1 Hist, of Convoc. 117 ; Bracton, ii. c. 16, sect. 7.

2 Dugd. Orig. Jurid. 6 ; Wilkins ; Leg. Anglo-Saxon, f. 288-9 ; Cot-
toui Posthuma, 13, 14, 346.

3 Hist, of Eng. ; Blackstone ; Barrington ; Sullivan.

246 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

system itself, with its splendid attractions and advan-
tages, weighed against its accumulated tyranny, to be
the foundation, for a long period, at once of the stability
and of the disorders prevailing in most of the mon-
archical governments of Europe.4

4 Selden, Prsef. ad Eadmer, f. 5 ; Madox, Hist, of the Exchequer, f. 6,
in marg. ; Henry of Hunt, inter script, post Bedam, 908 ; Hoveden,
460 ; Waverley Annals, 1084, 1086.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 247

CHAPTER VI.

Influence of William's measures — Independent legislation — Disregard of
papal threats — The "common council" — Separation of the civil and
ecclesiastical courts — Extension of crown pleas — Constitutional pro-
ceedings of the king — A constitutional sovereign — Unexpected results
of that acknowledgment — Spirit of free laws — William's caution —
Affected moderation — Observance of legal forms — Ecclesiastical
changes — " General council " held in London — Efforts to establish
despotism by law — Popular resistance — Book of constitutions — Govern-
ment of the clergy — Frequency of great councils or parliaments held
by William — Their powers — Property and its duties — New and amended
laws — Commissions appointed — Curious specimen of William's con-
veyancing— Amusing traits — Anecdotes of Norman customs — Lan-
guage— In courts of law — In schools — The queen withdraws into Nor-
mandy— State of England — Erection of new fortresses — Fresh outbreaks
— Revolt of the English lords — Invasion of the Scots — Fall of York
castle — Violence and excesses of the insurgents — The king marches
into the North — Subdues the insurgent earls — Pardons them — Takes
Earl Waltheof into favour — Gives him the hand of his niece — Mar-
riage festivities — Keeps his Christmas at York — Discontent of the
Norman barons — Rebellion in Normandy — English army led by Wil-
liam— Defeats his enemies — Death of earl Edwin — Conspiracy of
Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland — Of the Norman earls of Hereford,
Gloucester, Norfolk — Chivalric adventures — William imprisons Wal-
theof— The insurgent earls routed — Besieges the Earl of Norfolk —
Anecdotes of the Norman ladies — Calumnies against William — Edgar
Atheling — William's affected respect and consideration for him.

THE labours of William I., as a lawgiver, were not un-
attended with important results, such as have materially
influenced the character of our institutions and the
ecclesiastical and civil state of England, through every
stage of their career. With regard to the separation of
the ecclesiastical from the civil jurisdiction — a subject

248 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

fraught with struggles and dissentions not yet termi-
nated— we can adduce no higher authority than the
words of the Conqueror himself. They are strong and
fearless ; for he no longer required the aid, or dreaded
the assumed supremacy, of the papal court. Resolved
to render his prelates and clergy as submissive to the
royal will, if not to the civil laws, as the least of his
vassals, he commenced a work, which he must have felt
to be of an Herculean kind, with the indomitable spirit
and resolution which always characterised him. He
says expressly, in a proclamation to the sheriffs and
freeholders of Essex, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex,
that, finding the ecclesiastical laws of England neither
good in themselves nor consistent with the sacred canons,
he had them amended by the advice of his common
council, the council of his archbishops, his other
bishops and abbots, and all the chief men of his king-
dom. "And I therefore, in virtue of my royal autho-
rity, command and direct that no bishop or archdeacon
shall any more treat of the episcopal laws in meetings
of the hundred/'5

This was only the prelude to more extensive reforms,
and he seemed disposed to determine in favour of the
civil power the grand question of the right of investiture,
invariably claimed by the Roman see. The represen-
tative of St. Peter at length took alarm at the temporal
encroachments of a potentate of such consummate
ability and energy, but he did not venture to proceed to
open threats. William was no antagonist against whom
the spiritual bolts could be hurled with impunity ; 6 and

5 LL. Guglielmi Conq. 55, 58, ap. Wilkins.

6 He set the first example, followed by Henry II., of defining the great
boundaries of the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions ; of the general

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 249

as far as the Anglo-Norman empire extended, it was
soon apparent to which side the victory was likely to
incline.

It is difficult to point out the precise period when
ecclesiastics first claimed exemption from the civil juris-
diction of States. It is known that, during the early
and purest ages of the Christian church, they pretended
to no such privilege. The authority of the magistrate
extended to all persons and causes. Unhappily, some
acts of complaisance, flowing from veneration for their
sacred character, were in process of time improved into
exemption.7 Before the establishment of the spiritual
court in England, rights of advowson were tried in the
county courts, where the presence of the king's officer
and other lay assistants prevented partial and unjust
decisions by the ecclesiastical judge. But, after the
separation of the spiritual and civil jurisdictions by
William, the clergy endeavoured to draw all causes of
this nature into their peculiar court. This was very
properly resisted by the civil power, and the trial of
the question thus disputed was prudently reserved for
the king's siipreme court.8

Under the vigorous temporal sway of the Conqueror,
even heresy and idolatry were made crown pleas,9 a pre-
cedent for the act of supremacy which has now religious
power within the Church. It has none beyond it, either

councils, and the statutes of Clarendon. And it was full time, " when
holy orders were become a full protection for all enormities." — Note to
Hale, f. 136.

7 Du Cange collected most of the causes with respect to which the
clergy arrogated an exclusive jurisdiction. — Glossary ; Curia Christiana ;
Giannone, Civil Hist, of Naples.

8 Ld. Lyttleton, Hist, of Hen. II. 4, 371 ; Notes to C. J. Hale, A. 160.

9 Letters on the Eng. Constitution, Dyer, 167.

250 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

from the gospel, the Christian code, or from any funda-
mental law in civil society. It has hence been gene-
rally admitted that he introduced some laws, both
ecclesiastical and civil, besides altering and adapting to
his new state of things those already in force. M.
Houard, a Norman advocate, in his curious work 1 on
the old French laws, denies that the laws of William
bear any relation to those of Edward the Confessor ;
but his arguments have been sufficiently refuted by
M. Kelham,2 who correctly observes that the word
" tint " implies that these laws did not originate even in
Edward, but were handed down to him. " These are
the laws/' runs the title, ' ' and customs which William
the king granted to all the people of England after the
conquest of the realm ; they are the same as king Ed-
ward, his cousin, held before him." 3 These are, more-
over, the oldest Gallo-Normanic laws extant, which
he brought with him out of Normandy ; and are com-
prised in a single manual, as were those of the Con-
fessor, containing the Saxon laws, by which he had
bound himself to rule, and in pursuance of which the
customs and laws all over England were collected, that
the people might be governed by them. The reader
who knows what these laws, and rights, and customs
were, will be at no loss to make the proper inference.4
It is pleasing to reflect that an impartial examination

1 Anciennes Loisd es Fran§ois conservees dans les coutumes Angloises,
Rouen, 1760.

2 Prelim. Discourse to the Laws of King William, in his Dictionary of
the Norman or old French language.

3 " Ces sont les leys et les custumes que le reis William grantut a tut
le peuple de Engleterre, apres le conquest de la terre ; ici les meismes que
le reis Edward son cousin tint devant lui." — Wilkins ; Hale ; Blackstone ;
Brady ; Dyer, &c. 4 Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 251

of the conflicting arguments of opposite parties, leads
directly to the conclusion that King William was, how-
ever unwillingly, in the strict sense of the word a con-
stitutional sovereign; that his arbitrary temper, his
strong passions, his rapacity in confiscation,5 and his
cruel violence in suppressing the outbreaks of the people,
cannot supply a single argument to favour the views of
Norman absolute government, or establish the slightest
inherent right of sovereignty, independent of the will of
the people.

The constitution and the existing laws, in fact, dic-
tated terms to the conqueror of Harold,6 not of English
liberty ; and ultimately extended their free salutary in-
fluence to the country which, with the aid of Europe,
won a single battle in a war of succession, but was soon
repeatedly subdued by and received the law from Eng-
land, and from princes of Anglo-Saxon descent. These
great historic facts demonstrate the fundamental rights
of her people, and her constitutional claims, founded so
early upon political victories, which more than counter-
acted the effects of that of Hastings, and the subsequent
proclamations of military law against insurrections;
claims which have never ceased to be advocated to the
present moment.

With regard to the details of William's ecclesiastical
reforms at this period, we may refer the reader to the
monarch's own charter, and to the learned Selden's
notes on Eadmerus. For the number and different kinds

5 William was unable to avail himself of Machiavel's insidious counsel,
that " a town that has been anciently free, cannot be more easily kept in
subjection than by employing its own citizens." — The Prince.

6 " Lingua juravi, mentem injuratam teneo ;" and when this is the
maxim of a prince, the citizens are usually made instruments of their own
oppression.

252 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

of ecclesiastical courts, with their special jurisdictions,
we can have no better authority than the Commentaries
of Blackstone.7

It was this independence of the spiritual authority,
and its distinction from the common law, or lex patria,
as it was emphatically termed, and which William had
repeatedly confirmed, that he was now so laudably
anxious to remove.8

How much this important subject engaged the atten-
tion of the Conqueror may be gathered from the fact,
that many of those " capitula legum," which are now
adopted by the common law, were enacted in parliaments
or great councils under William I. and his predecessors.

Such was the spirit of the Anglo-Saxon institutions,
as not to admit even the civil or canon code to be the
rule of the administration of common justice ; nor did
it suffer for any time laws to be imposed by right of
conquest, in violation of the love of freedom inherent
in the Anglo-Saxon character. It is for this reason
that the new monarch never openly interfered with, or
presumed to question, the constitutional rights of the
English,9 although he gave up the country to rapine,
and swept whole provinces with the Norman fire and
sword. Dignified with the title of Conqueror,1 as wrest-
ing the crown from Harold, it constituted a title of
succession, not of conquest over a free people, whose
monarchy was in great part elective.

7 Vol. iii. pp. 61 to 68.

8 Dr. Taylor, Elements of the Civil Law, a work of profound learning,
thought, and research.

9 Rap in ; Tyrrell ; Henry ; Lingard ; Kennett ; Mackintosh ; Brodie ;
Hallam ; Alison ; Smythe.

1 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Mackintosh ; Vestigia Au-
glicana.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.^ 253

Success against a rival was never made a ground on
which to alter the established laws of a kingdom, nor in
the first exultation of his conquest was such a design
dreamed of by a man of sound judgment and consum-
mate ability, who directed, and rose above, instead of
being the sport of, circumstances. No imputation, such
as that of forcibly imposing laws upon the people by
means of conquest or right of war, rests upon the cha-
racter of William ; 2 he might modify them by policy, or
subvert by treachery, but, with all his feudal power, he
at no time entertained the presumptuous idea of openly
attempting to destroy the language, character, and in-
stitutions of a comparatively free nation.

There is indeed a charter of the Conqueror which has
been preserved,3 and in which he is made to call himself
rex hereditarius, meaning heir by will to king Edward ;
but it was natural, as a mere matter of courtesy towards
one possessed of such immense power, and so invariably
fortunate, to be addressed by any title that might prove
most agreeable; and with respect to the argument
based upon so frail a support, it is enough to observe
that there is a great difference of opinion among his-
torians with regard to a point which, had it been
founded on truth, must have insured a more general
acquiescence.4

The most arbitrary of his measures, on the other
hand, were passed by the common council of the king-
dom, and probably at the very time when twelve good
men and true out of every county were returned to
ascertain the Confessor's laws,5 pronounced to be as

2 Grotius ; Knyghton ; Wilkins ; Lambard.

3 By Dr. Hickes, vol. i. 4 Hist, of Com. Law of England, Hale, 98.
6 Hoveden • Hale.

£54 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

sufficient and effectual a parliament as ever was held in
England.6

How studious he was of legal and constitutional
forms in all his proceedings, when not at the head of
his army or engaged in repressing the popular insur-
rections, is proved hy the whole tenor of William's
reign. This fact, while it shows his respect for existing
laws, bears the highest possible testimony to the sterling
excellence, the vigour and elasticity of those free insti-
tutes which rose to maturity in spite of military subju-
gation, feudal violence, and arbitrary encroachments of
the Crown.

With regard also to the general administration of
justice, arbitration, revising and accommodating the
rules, methods, and order of proceeding, William is one
of the few English monarchs who possessed the clear-
headed, penetrating, and comprehensive qualities neces-
sary to form a great legislator and statesman. If we
only possessed more enlarged materials upon which to
form our judgment, it would very probably be found
that he had both more compass as well as acuteness of
mind than any other of our monarchs, not excepting
perhaps our first Edward, the English Justinian. For
unless he had laid the foundation of those fixed and
stable rules, little differing from some we now hold and
practise, upon which the latter raised his reputation, we
should not have preserved their substance and contex-
ture as handed down to the present day.7 He set his
successors the example of checking the pretensions of
the papal power, and repressing the pride and insolence
of the clergy. He defined the bounds of ecclesiastical

6 Blackstone, Comment, vol. iv.

* Sir M. Hale, Hist, of Com. Law, 152 j Black. Com. p. 452.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

255

jurisdiction and of the Common Pleas, preparing the
way, and indicating the direction, of the future " Magna
Charta." It was still more so with regard to the inferior
courts, whether of counties, hundreds, or courts baron.

He moreover provided against the interruption of the
common justice of the kingdom ; settled the solemnities
and efficacies of fines in crown pleas, and by itinerant
justices ; appointed places of record ; a common reposi-
tory for registries and surveys of land ; fixed the method
of tenures, of recoveries ; and consulted the safety and
preservation of the peace by the suppression of robberies.

If we consider also the general direction of the Con-
queror's writs, as well as that of his charters,8 it must
be admitted that the germs at least of popular represent-
ation were fostered by his general councils; and that
he conceded the first Magna Charta under the Norman
kings, when he had it recorded that the king reserved
to himself from the " freemen of this kingdom " nothing
but their free services due to him according to law ; that
they, the English, shall hold and enjoy their estates
well and in peace, free from all exactions and taillage.
This was ratified and confirmed by the common council
of the whole kingdom, which can by no explanation be
confined only to the Norman nobles and their followers.

Here is clearly the theory of the old Saxon liberty
upheld, explained, reduced into form and law ; the long-
asserted liberty of the English freemen, and of the
representative body of the people ; however often lost
sight of, obscured, or wholly violated, either by the tur-
bulence of the people, or the tyranny of the administra-
tion to whom they confided the sacred trust.

8 Ex Cartulario Canob. ; West in Biblioth. Cotton, fol. 1653 ; Quarterly
Review ; Hallam ; Brodie ; Smythe ; Mackintosh.

256 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

The county courts, hundred courts, and courts baron,
were held in the reign of William as under the Saxon
kings ; and it was in one of these that his half-brother
Odo, Earl of Kent, was cast and lost his cause.9 So
closely in fact did William adhere to the theory at least
of the Saxon laws, that the representation of the Com-
mons in the general council or parliament of the country,
as far as it obtained, was no innovation introduced by
William. One fact is decisive on this point, and shows
that the Commons took part, on some occasions, even in
the great Saxon councils.

In the enacting of the grand law of Tythes, it was
ordained, we are informed, by the king, by the barons,
and by the people.1 Again, in the fourth year of his
reign, the king, by the advice of his barons, summoned
at London a general assembly of all the nobles and wise
men, to ascertain, as already has been stated, what their
laws and customs were. Upon their being approved, he
consented that they should be ratified at the specified
request of the English commonalty. They were then
ordered to be strictly observed throughout the kingdom.2

This record also tends further to prove that the barones
Francigeni et Angli Nostri, "our French and English
barons/' were equally engaged to ratify the laws of King
Edward.

In the same year, William succeeded in bringing the
great prelates, bishops, and abbots, under the full baro-
nial tenure. The twelve representatives of each county
having shown what the Anglo-Saxon customs were,
they were carefully written out by Aldred, archbishop

9 Lambard, De Pris. Ang. Leg. v. 288.

1 A reye, baronibus, et populo. — Lam. De Pris. Ang. Leg. ; Spel. Con.
Temp. v. 288. - Chron. of Lichfield ; Lambard ; Spelman.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 257

of York; and Hugo, the bishop of London, and received
the confirmation of the barons in the parliament of that
day.3 Selden evidently considers the commons as repre-
sented in that parliament, a term which he frequently
employs. Now these representatives, it also appears,
were many of them Englishmen; and in this common
council, the very name denoting its constituency, was
passed the famous law of scot and lot 4 in favour cer-
tainly of the Normans ; 5 to the purport that no French-
man should be charged with double taxes and duties, as
being a foreigner, but that he should pay his easy share
and proportion like any natural born Englishman, evi-
dently here referring to a previous law or custom in use.

It was in such a general assembly of the wise men of
the kingdom, sent by the counties, that Lanfraiic was
elected, in the course of the same year, to the see of
Canterbury, by the specified consent of the lords and
prelates and the whole people ; in other words, by the
parliament of England.6

Like some glorious vessel rising above the storms and
terrors of the raging seas, still threatening to engulph
her, and holding on her destined way till she hails her
native port, that parliament derived strength from the
very elements of strife and faction; from the weak-
nesses, the errors, and the yet darker crimes of the
princes who attempted to destroy its national influence,
and to arrest its bold and free career.

It is a remarkable circumstance, not insisted upon

3 Selden, Titles of Honour, 580 ; Hovenden, Collect. ; Laws of Glan-
ville. 4 " Amplote and Anscote;" Spel., Gloss. Amplote, fol. 31.

5 Char. Reg. ap. Lambard, c. 34, 170.

6 Gervas. Dercher Act. point Cant. fol. 1653 ; Relat Will. "prim, ad
finem tract, de Gavelkind.

VOL. I. S

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

by any of William's biographers, that the covert means
adopted by him to arrest the progress of public liberty
were in the end favourable to it, by exciting national
energy and opposition, which, taking advantage of the
weakness or the wants of his successors, gradually de-
veloped the inherent power and capabilities of the
British Constitution. He himself felt that he was here
no conqueror; that he had acquired England only
under a pledge to rule by the laws of the land. He
knew that the English had a right to liberty, and were
resolved to maintain it ; and hence his open and pro-
fessed sanction, and even advocacy of it in public
assemblies, and in presence of his Norman barons,
however his own ambition and avarice impelled him
to infringe it, where aristocratic treachery or popular
violence afforded him an excuse for drawing the sword.
He acknowledged it in more than one public charter ;
and thus sanctioned delegations of power from the
people, the best and wisest provision in our laws.

Mere forms, like those observed by William, often
overshadowed principles ; and the germs of bad as wel
as of good laws were freely scattered by his hand. Bu
he saw that the institutions of England in almost ev
case favoured liberty; and, though his charters we
not without defects, and in an age when serfdom p
vailed, applied only to the free tenants, they opened th
way to more extended rights, the legal inheritance
all Englishmen.

Anglo-Saxon liberty was deeply stained with th
basest and most revolting of human crimes, the plagu
spot and certain corruption of every social communit
in which it is allowed — man's property in man ; and i
is to William, and a few of his more enlightened sue-

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. £59

cessors, aided by the great councils of the nation, that
English law is indebted at this day for its non-recogni-
tion of the name of slave. The modifications of the
constitution, which date their rise from the reign of
William., resulted in making every slave, as soon as he
put his foot on English ground, a free man ; and, with
all the drawbacks of our feudal and Anglo-Norman
laws, they gave us, from the first acknowledgment of
William, an assurance of the ultimate triumph of those
principles which are the main bulwarks of our English
Constitution.

The ancient Britons, indeed, had their public councils,
though we do not possess any body of their laws ; 7 but
the constitutions of our Saxon ancestors8 are to be
found both in our public libraries and in print. The
latter doubtless were in possession of charters, though
not to the same extent as the Normans ; 9 but neither
supply us with a regular digest or code of laws, which
may deserve the name of a written Constitution.

This great national triumph was achieved by the un-
tiring energy, the repeated and persevering efforts of
the people themselves, which gathered strength from
the opposition and oppression of the strong, and took

7 Hywel Dda's (Leges Wallicse) are of a subsequent period.

s In the Cott. Collection, British Museum ; in Bishop Parker's, Ben-
net's College, Cambridge ; and in the Bodleian, Oxford. They were first
printed by Lambard, under the title of " Archaionomia," London, 1568.
Wheler published an enlarged edition at Cambridge, in 1644, and Spel-
man, his British Councils in 1639. Dr. David Wilkins, at the royal
command, republished an edition in folio of Wheler, improved and
enlarged, in 1721. This work contains all the Anglo-Saxon, Gallo-Nor-
man, and Latin laws (some unquestionably spurious), which now remain,
from Ethelbert, who began his reign in 561, to the Magna Charta of
Henry III., who began his reign in 1216.

9 Ingulphus, Hist. Abb. Croyland, 70.

s 2

260 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

advantage of the follies and vices of the weak or con-
flicting rulers, who strove to outbid their rivals by
parting with their prerogatives, and by the amount of
their concessions to the popular power.

"The Book of Constitutions/' ! so called in our
Anglo-Saxon laws, from which most probably the name
as well as the spirit of our English Constitution was
derived, is simply a short book of homilies. But it was
from that, and from the Dom or Doma-bek* there
alluded to, that "William borrowed his new code, with
certain additions and modifications from the Danish
and Norman ; as well as his idea of the great Doomsday
book, which was no novelty or innovation, a general
survey having been made in the reign of king Alfred.
The word constitution also occurs in Hywel Dda's Laws,
though not exactly in the modern sense, and must have
arisen, as the term itself implies, from the circumstance
of both the British and the Anglo-Saxon laws having
been made in common council, both by the clergy and
the people, amid a great throng, as it is added, of the
servants of God.3

It will thus be seen that, notwithstanding his arbi-
trary propensities and stern military rule, William was
only one in the order of constitutional succession, and
was mainly borne forward by the popular impulses
already given, and by the stream of circumstances and

1 Liber Constitutionum ; Wilkins ; Leges Anglo-Sax, p. 147.

2 Dom, or Doom, or Doma-book, from the Anglo-Sax. Dom and Bek,
Liber Judicialis ; and so we have domesdaeg, the day of judgment ; and
William the Norman's Domesday-book, or census book of all England ; the
fine original MS. of which is in the Exchequer. See Bishop Wilkins
under the head Dombec, in the Saxon laws. Leg. Ang. Sax. p. 48 ; also,
Dyer's Letters on the English Constitution.

3 " Tarn cleri quam populi ; in magna servorum Dei frequentia." —
Ibid,

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 261

events which carried fortunes prouder and greater
than his own — the free destinies, only yet half accom-
plished, of a mighty people.4

We must not, therefore, forget, even as matter of
antiquity as well as history, that, though the house of
commons, considered in its present form as a house
of representatives, rose out of the feudal system, provi-
sion was made under William for the government of the
kingdom by the old Saxon laws; that those liberties,
moreover, truly and emphatically called the liberties of the
subject, since more clearly denned, and more indisput-
ably settled, were guaranteed, and supported, at least in
theory, by one who himself never assumed the title or
character of a conqueror.5

Soon after his accession to the throne, William opened
his great councils or parliaments very frequently. They

4 This sacred and majestic power of the English common or popular
law, over the will of the most arbitrary sovereigns, will hardly be ques-
tioned in the case of William, if we examine the fundamental principles
upon which it is based. The result will be found that which William and
his successors soon experienced, and to which they subscribed with a
reluctant hand. " That the people have a right to a free enjoyment of
life, liberty, and property ; a right to make those laws by which they or
governed ; and a right to share in that power which puts the laws in
execution." To these may be added the excellent maxim of good king
Edward, which has ever been deemed a fundamental one in our law :
" That if any law or custom be contrary to the law of God, of nature, or
of reason, it ought to be looked upon as null and void." These funda-
mental principles form part of our legal code, so that we may apply to
them what the translator of the " Mirror of Justices," says of the common
law, " That when the laws of God and reason came into England then
came we." It is the peculiar feature of it that no part can either be
made or altered at the will of the prince. — Fortescue De LI. Anglise, cap. 9.

5 This title, conferred upon him after his victory over Harold, was
never employed by the Conqueror himself ; who, aware of the limits of
his power, would hardly have been content to sign his name " William
Bastardus," as he generally did, had he enjoyed an absolute sovereignty.

262 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

were generally held annually, or at still shorter periods,
and were summoned by special writs from the king.
That in these he followed the custom or unwritten law
established before the Conquest, we have the testimony
of the author of the " Mirror of Justices," a work, if
reliance is to be placed on the authority of Lord Coke,
written before that period. Blackstone also frequently
refers to it as one of great antiquity and of high autho-
rity. It distinctly states that the counties were assem-
bled by king Alfred twice a year or oftener, if need were;6
so that calling parliaments once, or oftener in the year,
would appear to have been a very ancient practice, and
one to which William was bound by such constitutional
or unwritten law, as well as by circumstances, to adhere.

The extent and peculiar powers of these great coun-
cils or parliaments, even under William, do not so clearly
appear. Whatever may be understood by the comites
or earls 7 in Alfred's time, whether they were meant to
include the commons, or were confined to thanes and
counts who held jurisdiction over the counties, there is
sufficient reason to conclude that the present house of
commons sprung out of the latter feudal system, so
widely extended and established, if not introduced, by
the Norman king.

We find that at first the greater barons, those who
held immediately under him in perpetuity, and who in

6 Letters on the Eng. Constitution, p. 57.

7 Chap. I. sect. 3. Les Premiers Constitutions ordaines per les viels
Roys : Del Roy Alfred. « Pur le estate del royalme fist 1' roy Alfred
assembler les Comites, et ordeigne pur usage perpetudle que a deux foits
par 1'an ou plus souvent, pur mestier en temps de peace se assembleront

a Londres pur pamamenter sur le guidement du peuple d' Dieu, &c."

La Sommeappelle Mirroir des Justices, edit. 1642 ; Dyer's Letters on the
English Constitution, 57, 60.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 263

that right were of the king's great council, formed the
virtual representation ; and when these were allowed to
alienate their possessions, so that others held under
them by the same military service, the new proprietors
possessed the same right. These, called by most writers
the lesser barons, growing too numerous to attend in
person, were obliged to appear by representatives; and
out of these arose what were afterwards, and still are,
called knights of the shire. But this, too, was only a
virtual representation, and those who did not hold by
knight's service, and therefore were not free, — those who
held by soccage, villeinage, or prsedial tenures, that great
mass of the people, — were all excluded. The representa-
tion consequently was then at least far from being uni-
versal. But at length, as zeal for arms and enterprise
somewhat abated, as commerce and manufactures in-
creased, as trading towns and cities grew wealthy and
considerable, it was thought necessary and reasonable,
that they should send representatives from the whole
body of the community.8

It has been supposed that the spirit of aristocracy, in
some points of view, rose with William ; that he made
the crown hereditary, altered the English fiefs or tenures,
and dispossessed the English nobility to make room for
his Normans. This is in great part true ; and it might
be added that circumstances and events, over which he
had little control, left him no alternative. His system
was necessarily accompanied with burdens unknown to
the Saxons; and their immediate effect was, to raise
the power of the few over the rights of the many. Yet
there were parts even of the latter feudal system,9 favour-

8 Letters on the English Constitution, 57, 60.

9 The greater barons, or tenants in chief, had then lesser barons, or

264 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

able to public liberty, and which wanted only a more
equal distribution of property, and the spirit of com-
merce,, to advance claims to greater durability.1 But with
those wants, as they were, and which yet to some extent
exist, the restrictive system which succeeded the feudal,
can, like it, only continue during the term prescribed to
the corruption and monopoly, which either precede the
reformation of states, or lead to their certain dissolution.
With a view of cementing the strict union between
England and Normandy, William is believed, thus early
in his reign, to have entertained the difficult project of
totally abolishing the English language. For that pur-
pose, he ordered that in all the schools throughout the
kingdom, the youth should be instructed in the French
tongue; a practice which was continued from custom
till after the reign of Edward III., and was never indeed

knights, who held under them. Thirteen knights' fees made a baron's
peer, and twenty knights' fees an earl's. At the close of William's reign,
the number of those who held under him, in capite, by knight's service,
was upwards of seven hundred.— Elsynge on the Manner of Parliaments
jn England ; Doomsday Book ; Letters on the English Constitution.

1 Harrington, with profound truth, observes, that " the centre and
basis of every government is no other than the fundamental laws of the
same." " As there is a private reason," he adds, " which is the interest
of a private man ; so there is that reason, which is the interest of man-
kind, or the whole ;" and government he calls, after Hooker, "the soul
of a nation ;" and what he calls the mind and will of a nation is what
others mean by a constitution. Machiavel conies near the truth when he
says, " then a city may be called free, and a state may pronounce itself
durable, when it is founded on good laws and orders at first, and has not
that necessity of good men to maintain it. Of such laws and principles
many ancient commonwealths were formerly constituted, and continued
a good while." Dr. Johnson defines a constitution to be « an established
form of government ; a system of laws and customs." Fortescue, Black-
stone, and most lawyers, consider it as the spirit of the laws ; and that our
constitution is in our statutes. — Lord Fortescue, Preface to his Records j
Dyer on the Principles of the English Constitution, 24. ^

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 265

totally discontinued in England. The pleadings in the
supreme courts of judicature were in French ; the deeds
were often drawn in the same language, and the laws
were composed in that idiom. No other tongue was
used at court. It became the language of all fashion-
able societies till it was adopted as a sort of universal
vehicle of speech in all the courts of Europe,, as at this
day ; and most of the English themselves, as if ashamed
of their own country, affected to excel in a foreign
dialect.

From this attention of William to the amalgamation
of the two people by means of one language and one
body of laws, which had the effect rather of anglicising
those of Normandy than of grafting French institutions
upon our own, and from the extent of foreign dominion
annexed to the crown of England, there naturally pro-
ceeded the great admixture of French, at present met
with in our language, but which certainly harmonised
and enriched it.2

National suspicion having once been aroused that a
change in the laws, as well as in the language, was
contemplated, it was not long before a spirit of defection
and revolt, promoted by men like the archbishop of
York in the north, and Frederick, abbot of St. Alban's,
in the south, warned William as to the policy of arrest-
ing or retracing his steps. He was prevailed upon by
Lanfranc, now archbishop of Canterbury, to renew his
oaths to preserve inviolate the laws of king Edward
and his predecessors. To render the ceremony more
imposing by giving it a religious character, he swore

2 Hale, C. L. of England, 36 Ed. III. c. 15 ; Selden, Spicileg. ad Ead-
nier, 189; Fortescue, Laud. Leg. Angl. c. 48 ; Ingulf. 71, 88 ; Chron.
Rotliom. A.D. 1066.

266 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

as usual, over the reliques of good saint Alban, and the
deputies from the discontented districts took their depar-
ture not only satisfied/ but overjoyed, to their own
homes.

But although for the third time the Anglo-Saxon
laws and usages were thus confirmed by a sort of royal
capitulation, which so early set an example of deceiving
the people, to his successors, especially to his sons, to
Stephen, and to king John, it had only a temporary
influence in allaying the elements of disaffection and
dispute. This arose from various causes : William was
as uneasy in champing the bit and feeling the rein in
the hand of constitutional power, as were the people
under his encroachments and his watchful policy in
taking advantage of all overt acts of insurrection, to
extend the line of his military prerogative, and draw the
exterminating sword. The laws were moreover vague
and ill defined, and it was for this reason, that upon
another threatened outbreak he summoned, as we have
noticed, a general or common council of his kingdom,
more clearly to ascertain the extent and meaning of
them,4 as some guide, no doubt, how far he might safely
venture in future.

That William's royal prerogatives were farther limited
by the English laws, we learn from the fact that many
possessed of lands in the reign of the Confessor were
returned in Doomsday-book as retaining the same,
which continue to the present day in the hands of their
successors. This could hardly have been the case, if
the lands of the English had been vested in a con-
queror. About this time also the charters of the ancient

3 M. Paris, in vita Frederici Abbatis Sancti Albani.

4 Hoveden, 600 ; Ingulf. 88 ; Brompton, 982 ; Knyghton, 2355.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 267

Saxon kings were pleaded 5 and allowed by William in
council ; and by the same charters titles were made or
created to lands, liberties, franchises, and regalities,
affirmed and adjudged in presence of the king, and
signed by his hand. Even when exception was offered on
the ground that by the Conquest those charters had lost
their force, the claims were finally allowed ; a singular
admission against the plea of the victor, had all men's
rights been yested in him alone.6

This could not be pretended ; for under the vigorous
sway of William titles were not empty names ; offices,
mere sinecures, filled by deputy ; and property, masses
of land and wealth without their attaching responsibili-
ties and duties. He was at least as jealous of the
assumptions of the lords and bishops, as of the people ;
and was perhaps of opinion that kings held parliaments
and councils with their people, even before bishops and
lords were made.7 Dignity was connected with duty,
and distinctions of name were titles of office, both in
France and this country, the Saxon berotica correspond-
ing to the French duke, while the peculiar office of the
marquis was to guard the marches ; the name " earl,"
Danish eorle, honourable, a shire man, or county man,
had the government of a whole county. So that an earl
sitting as judge over a shire it was necessary he should
understand the laws, his office being to administer them
in his county court ; and William resembled Alfred, at

5 Eadmerus ; Selden ; Hale, C. Law of Eng. 86, 88.

6 William probably was acquainted with that maxim of another pro-
found politician, Tacitus, that what is unnatural and violent cannot last
long : " Nunquam fidem esse potentium quse nimia est ; " than which no
truth has been more amply illustrated by history.

7 Milton, Defence of the People of England ; Author of " Modus tenendi
Parliaments."

268 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

least in one respect, by requiring the earls to be
acquainted with the laws/ and even putting some of the
most unjust judges to death.

If farther evidence were wanting of the constitutional
acts, the confirmations, the charters, and the popular
concessions extorted from William, whatever were his
real views, it may be found in the numerous recoveries
obtained even against his own friends and relatives,
both by heirs and successors, of the seizin of their pre-
decessors before the Conquest. Examples such as that
contained in the record of Pinendon, by the archbishop
of Canterbury, were not unfrequent in the early part of
his reign.9

In addition to William's inquiries into the common
or customary and unwritten laws of England, many of
them newly ratified by him, he extended them to the
inferior branches, properly called the king's ecclesias-
tical, the king's military, the king's maritime, or the
king's forest laws ; all of them subordinate to the higher
courts.1 Of his skill and experience in the branch
of conveyance, a curious specimen has been recorded,
which shows at once his ready wit, and the facility he
had acquired from long use in expressing the terms of
law ; then considerably less technical, but more concise,
and doubtless quite as much to the purpose.

Though his forms of conveyance were in some cases
extremely short, and in others not very satisfactory to

8 Bacon on the Eng. Government ; Turner, Hist, of Ang. Sax. ii. 6. x.

9 The whole process and proceedings may be read at the end of Sel-
den's notes on Eadmerus, and Spelnian's Glossaries, title Dreunches. See
the same also respecting the separation of the bishop's consistory from
the sheriff's court. Blackstone, vol. iii., contains a brief account of the
various kinds of ecclesiastical courts, pp. 61 to 68. Also Judge Hale,
C. L. of England, 28, 29. * Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 269

those whose estates were subjected to them, it is clear
from this instance that William would have made a
very admirable lawyer in any branch of the profession ;
and that it was, perhaps, this sound and penetrating
judgment which enabled him to preserve his throne,
and to rule the English by dividing all, yet mortally
offending none of the existing parties. If the great
number of his charters were as pointed and condensed
as that conferred upon his Norman hunter, — notwith-
standing " he was rough and covetous towards the
English in his taxes, laws, and in giving to his Normans
their lands"2 — it is probable that he gave much less
trouble to the gentlemen of the long robe than some
of his successors : —

" I, William, king, the third year of my reign,
Give to thee, Norman Hunter — to me thou art

Both leefe and deere —
The Hop and the Hopton, and all the bounds

Up and down ;

Under the earth to he.ll, above the earth to heaven ;
From me and mine, to thee and thine,
As good and as fair, as ever they were.
To witness that this is sooth, I bite the white

Wax with my tooth
Before Jugge, Maude, and Margery, and

My youngest son Henry,
For a bow and a broad arrow, when I come

To hunt upon Yarrow." 3

The only jeu d> esprit which will bear a comparison,
we think, with this royal mode of conferring a grant
upon his Norman hunter, is among the curious odds
and ends of Thomas Hearne, under the head of a
descent of the family of Cognisby, which, if the author

2 Speed, Hist, of England. 3 Stowe, Ex libro Richmond.

270 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

could have been suspected of satire, we might conclude
was meant in ridicule of the Battle-abbey roll :—

" William of Cognisby
Came out of Brittany,
With his wife Tiffany,
And his maid Maufas,
And his dogge Hardigrass." 4

Happy for King William and the people had he
required only a provision for the masters of his hawks

4 Prsefat ad Fordun. Vestigia Ang. i. 191. To such an extent was the
fashion carried of tracing family descent and settlement in England to
the time of the Conqueror, that it was soon turned into a subject of ridi-
cule. The unfortunate Chatterton, it is perhaps not generally known,
derived his pedigree from the Sieur de Chaubaulonne, of the house of
Hollo, the first duke of Normandy ; and that of his friend, Mr. Stephen,
the pewterer, from Fitzstephen, son of the Earl of Aumarle, in 1095, son
of Odo, earl of Blois and lord of Holdernesse. That such pretensions
were early ridiculed, we have an instance in Shakspeare, who makes his
drunken tinker, Christopher Sly (in the " Taming of the Shrew "), boast
in his blundering way, that "the Slys came in with Richard Con-
queror."— Ibid. This reminds us of a more modern instance, in humble
life, and perhaps, from the circumstances, rather more worthy of credi-
bility. At one of the late audits of Sir Edward Blount, Bart. (Shropshire),
some of the tenants were contesting the point as to which of their families
could boast of having rented an estate on the property for the longest
period. A farmer named Allen, proved to their satisfaction that he and
his ancestors had rented under the family for a period of nearly 780
years ; that his ancestors had immigrated from Normandy with the
Blount family at the time of the Conquest. This remarkable fact, if
indeed so, redounds greatly to the credit of both the successive landlords
and tenants ; and we can only recommend it as an example for the emu-
lation of both classes through the kingdom. There are a few instances
of disinterestedness in the followers of the Conqueror left on record,
which, if also true, are not a little creditable to the parties. William
Fitzrichard, a Norman captain, refused to accept of any land by way of
recompense, declaring that he followed William from a sense of duty, and
that he was not to be tempted by stolen goods. Like the Beaumonts, and
a few others, he returned into Normandy to enjoy his old moderate
inheritance. — Ord. Vital. Vestigia Ang. ii. 1 99. See also Battle Abbey
Roll . — Appendix .

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 271

and hounds. He had already bestowed upon his chief
followers the estates held by the English lords, and
their adherents who had joined the late insurrections.
He was now enabled to establish funds for the payment
of his soldiers. This he effected by taking into his
hands the demesne lands which belonged to king Ed-
ward, and annulling in council all the dispositions and
grants made during his brief reign by Harold ; a mea-
sure which subsequently led to his great national survey.

The estates forfeited by many of Harold's adherents
who fell at the first invasion,, or who persevered in the
struggle, were in themselves very considerable, though
insufficient to meet the claims of so large a body of ex-
pectants, for whom William felt bound in honour to-
provide. Many innocent persons doubtless suffered, as
well as a third class, who had kept aloof to watch the
progress of events ; and, being chiefly men of high note,
were subjected to the confiscatory process renewed by
the politic monarch upon every provoked insurrection.

At the same time, as we learn from Spelman in the
case of Edwin of Sherborne, restitution was made in
cases where the party could prove that he had not ap-
peared in arms against King William. Stigand, arch-
bishop of Canterbury, having opposed him at the outset,
a large portion of his lands was granted to Odo, bishop
of Bayeux, but afterwards recovered by Lanfranc,
Stigand's successor, in full council, summoned by spe-
cial writ from the king. We may adduce also several
other grants and charters made by him, mentioned
in the history of Ely, and in Eadmerus, for restoring to
bishoprics and abbeys such lands or goods as had been
taken from them unjustly. Still the ruin of Stigand,
resolved upon to make way for William's favourite

272 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

diplomatist, Lanfranc, led to the gradual subversion of
the English prelacy in favour of the Norman and other
foreign aspirants.5

Among other Norman laws early introduced by Wil-
liam, and strongly countenanced by the great prelates
and clergy, was the singular trial or ordeal by battle,6
already practised in several European countries. It is
a species of trial, according to Blackstone, of high an-
tiquity, and though it became obsolete, leaving its traces
only in the as barbarous and absurd practice of the
modern duel, it remained legally in force, until ex-
pressly abolished by a statute of recent date. We may
refer its origin to the chivalrous and enterprising spirit
of men, in those turbulent ages, who, when they hap-
pened to quarrel, having no umpires equal in their own
estimation to themselves, found no resource but in an
appeal to the " ultima ratio " of their swords. Nor was
it less revolting from the superstition implied in such an
appeal to Providence, on the presumption that it was
bound to interfere to give the victory to the just instead
of to the strong. It was considered an excellent device,
perhaps, for getting rid of a vexatious suit at law, a rival
in love or war, or the nearest of kin who stood in the
royal or aristocratic road to preferment.7

6 William, however, held his new Norman churchmen, as well as his
lay lords, in great subjection. He would allow none, however high or
ambitious, to dispute his sovereign will and pleasure. The crimes alleged
against Stigand were in great part unfounded. — Knyghton, 2345 ; Anglia
Sacra, vi. 5, 6; Ypod. Neust. 438; Eadmerus ; Hoveden, 453; Diceto, 482.

6 Such is the law of France and Normandy to this day, as well as
of the Isles of Jersey and Guernsey, which once formed part of the
same. — Terrier, 1. ii. c. 2.

7 Black. Com. 3 v. 357 ; Will. cap. 68 ; Barring on Strat. 202, 294 ;
Robertson, Hist, of Charles V. i. v. 62, 357 ; Coutumier de Normandie.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 273

Further, with regard to the Norman laws introduced
by William at this time, they were not so extensive as
to endanger the constitutional customs and liberties
of the people, and unless a noble ground-work had
been laid in his reign, it was impossible that in the
next age, so soon after as Henry II., the laws of England
should have received such accessions of strength and
excellence. We may form some estimate of this prodi-
gious impulse of constitutional power in a right direc-
tion from the labours of Glanville and of Lyttleton;
and of its steady and connected progress, in spite of
every obstacle from the accession of the great Norman,
who led the English through a sort of battle ordeal to
assume that superiority in the eyes of Europe which
they have never since lost. This could only be the re-
sult of popular laws and national independence. No
longer a prey to foreign invasion, instead of wasting
their energies in defensive wars upon their own soil,
they soon carried their victorious arms under so great
leader to the very gates of Paris.

In 1069, William, aware of the approaching out-
breaks,8 thought it prudent that queen Matilda and his
family should withdraw once more into Normandy. The
continued confiscations, pursued as a system, the open
violence or secret frauds perpetrated by the great vassals
and mesne lords under the name of law, through the
ascendency obtained in the great councils, spread alarm
through the country. Numbers both of the laity and

8 The king had accurate intelligence of the proceedings of the insur-
gent earls. He was always prepared ; he had erected a strong fortress at
Exeter, of which he gave the command to Baldwin, son of the Count of
Brione. He had restored, and fortified also, Canute's famous tower at
St. Edmondsbury, which by some writers is said to have been erected by
Baldwyn, the abbot, in the Conqueror's own reign. — Vestigia Ang. 105.
VOL. I. T

274 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

clergy, recently deprived of their offices, flew to arms, and
joined the banners of the earls Edwin and Morcar in the
north. Nearly a third part of England acknowledged
their authority. Favourites of the people, not less
than of the clergy,9 they had powerful adherents, and
the torch of insurrection was rekindled at different
points.

This powerful league, in itself formidable to the
government, was strengthened by the accession of the
Prince of Wales, of Malcolm, King of Scotland, and of
the Danish Sweyn. Hope of accommodation there was
none ; the causes of deadly hostility lay too deep, and
life and honour were alike perilled ; for there was
scarcely one who had not taken the oath of allegiance to
William, or entered into strict alliance with him. But
his breach of faith, in refusing the hand of his daughter
which he had long promised to earl Edwin, was a fresh
challenge to insurrection ;»and he showed by the removal
of his family, by the completion of his fortresses, and
his active preparations, that he had fully expected it,
and felt himself strong enough to strike down the loftiest
heads of the Anglo-Saxon race.

The moment he knew that the two earls had com-
mitted themselves by taking the field, he marched his
powerful army, ready equipped, into the north.1 At
Warwick he ordered large additions to be made to the
immense fortress, of which he gave the command to
Henry, one of the sons of the celebrated Roger de
Beaumont. That of Nottingham he entrusted to ano-
ther Norman, named Peverell ; and then, advancing by

9 Angelwine,' bishop of the East Angles, with many other prelates, were
deprived of their sees by fhe authority of Rome, and committed to prison
for life. — Hayward's Lives of the Norman Kings ; Ord. Vit.

i Ord. Vit. ; W. of Malms. ; H. Hunt. ; Wace ; Walsingham ; Thierry.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 275

forced inarches, lie fell upon the confederates by sur-
prise before they had received half their reinforcements,
routed, and compelled them to sue for terms. The city
of York surrendered; and, as a punishment for its
having joined the league, William, with the imposts
levied upon the inhabitants, built another mighty for-
tress in the most central and commanding spot.2 He
placed in it a strong Norman garrison, reinforced the
garrisons of Huntingdon and Cambridge, compelled the
Scotch king to sue for peace, and returned in triumph,
with his prisoners and hostages, to strike another blow
at the insurrection in the south.

Having now fairly drawn the sword, he threw aside the
scabbard, and resolved to carry out his confiscatory sys-
tem against the possessions of the English nobility and
clergy to the utmost extent. They had vainly hoped,
with the entire people, that the Conqueror's repeated
ratification of the old Saxon laws would have protected
them. But what he confirmed by law, he knew how to
take away by law, much more successfully than by open
violence or unjust pretensions. He was aware that
property so obtained was never secure ; and he proceeded
with the aid of his privy and his common councils — in
both which his influence was predominant — formally,
legally, and therefore irresistibly, to the attainment of

2 S. Dunelm. Col. ; R. Diceto, Col. ; Ord. Vit. ; Hume ; Henry ; Lin-
gard. Another was subsequently erected in the same city. The portion
now remaining is called Clifford's Tower. Camden only says that William
built a prodigious strong castle to keep the nation in awe. Near this site
stands the shell of Clifford's Tower, which was blown up 1684. — Gibson's
Camden, 717. Drake intimates that it was blown up by design ; the
citizens being not at all unwilling to rid themselves of so troublesome a
neighbour, and such inconvenient badges of distinction as this, which
(being erected at Christmas) they sarcastically designated " the old mince-
pie." — Drake's Antiquities, p. 289.'

276 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

his object. Even Fortune seemed to favour, as usual,
his insidious and unjust projects, his revenge, and his
rapacity ; that master passion of all, his love of supreme
sway, impelling him to indulge them to the utmost,
when he found that he could do so with"impunity.

The papal power was in itself a tower of strength
to William in this heartless crusade, which, directed
against the liberties of a whole people, met with a well-
deserved retribution. The same grasping spirit and
insatiable thirst of power which made him so refined
and profound a master of dissimulation, the same
tyranny and oppression, roused the furies of discord in
his own family, shook his half-consolidated empire to
its centre, and alienated the affections of a consort to
whom he was ardently attached. A new list of proscrip-
tion was already filled ; and he lost no time in confis-
cating the estates of the rebel lords, and transferring
ecclesiastical offices of trust and dignity from the Eng-
glish prelacy into the hands of the Norman.3 The
noblest families 4 were imprisoned, banished, or reduced
to extreme penury;5 the natural results, for the time
being, of a conquest de facto, produced by the fraud and
perjury of the ruler, and the re-acting violence of a

3 Hallam, Middle Ages, ii. 142 ; Brodie, Hist, of Eng. Constitution j
Mackintosh ; Smythe, Lee. on Mod. History ; Alison ; Lingard ; Henry ;
Tyrrell.

4 A great number, taking the alarm, fled into Scotland, where they
were generously protected by Malcolm, and settled in the country. Many
high families in Scotland are descended from these exiles — those of
Lindsey, Ramsay, Lovell, Towbris, Sandlands, Bissart, Sowlis, Wardlaw,
Maxwell, and several others. The nobles who ventured to remain were
stripped of their possessions. William secured his future tranquillity by
taking from nobles and people even the power to rebel.

5 Ingulphus ; W. of Malms. ; Halket ; Eadmer ; Polydore Virgil ;
Brady ; Mills ; Ord. Vit.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 277

people in possession of constitutional rights, into the
violation of which they had been purposely goaded.
William had thus secured, by means of law, more than
all that the most lawless and despotic of conquerors
could have proposed to themselves, for by such means
he not only acquired, but consolidated and rendered
permanent the advantages which he obtained.

The strange anomaly now presented itself of a people
who had enjoyed the hard-won boon of free laws, cus-
toms, and manners, for a period long enough to form a
sort of code or constitution, guaranteed to them by the
most sacred oaths, being deprived of all that renders
them desirable or valuable by the legal process of those
very institutions against which it was made to appear
that they had risen in arms. There was no evidence
against the wily despot who had betrayed them and
stolen the glorious prize which he dared not challenge.

From that period Norman despotism threw away the
scabbard, and attempted to rule by force. The king
struck boldly at the very basis of English power, civil,
military, and ecclesiastical, by depriving the people of
their most popular leaders, and excluding them from all
places of trust and profit, especially the English clergy
.of all degrees. It was only to their own courage and
persevering energy, under the shield of Providence, that
Englishmen owed the preservation of their laws and
the extension of their privileges, extorted, when they
could no longer be resisted, from the iron sway of Wil-
liam's successors.

More especially perhaps it was to her native freemen,
to her future yeomanry, the great body just removed
above the serfs of the soil, that England was indebted for
her safety, at a time when the heads of her clergy and

278 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

her nobles were cut down, lingering in exile or in the
gloom of dungeons. Some, warned by the fate of their
neighbours, fled ; Edgar Atheling and his sisters, with
several influential nobles, sought refuge in Scotland.6
King Malcolm subsequently married one of the sisters,
the nrincess Margaret ; and he bestowed lands upon the
Saxon lords from whom so many noble families in Scot-
land derived their descent.7

Nor was "William's new policy terrible only to the
English; the lords of Grentemesnil and Tilleul fell
under its ban, for venturing to revisit their families in
Normandy without leave.8 It seemed as if the severity
of his government conjured up fresh enemies 9 as fast as
others disappeared. But he proceeded more cautiously
with regard to his Norman vassals,1 while any of his

6 1068, 9.

7 Annal. Waver. 1068 ; Chron. Sax. ; M. Paris ; R. Hoveden, Annal.
259, Col. 2.

8 It was this king's policy to rule by dividing, in every sense. He thus
gave his chief barons estates in different counties, so as to weaken their
power. It is observed by Madox, that the knights' fees of almost every
barony were scattered over various counties.' — Madox, Hist, of Ex-
chequer ; Hallam.

9 Chiefly Norman, and among his own vassals. The baronial fiefs of
England, unlike those of France, were derived actually from the Crown.
Its vassals submitted to the conditions imposed. (Ibid.) These barons
formed part only of the great councils. The vigorous but arbitrary cha-
racter of William's feudal government continued to influence the condi-
tion of the people for upwards of a century and a half, and the laws and
institutions of England during a much longer period. — Dugdale ; Madox ;
Hallam ; Lingard ; Smythe ; Alison ; Brodie.

1 As a body, the barons were able to vindicate their own rights from
the encroachments of the royal prerogative ; but the bulk of the people
were strangers to liberty. Gradually, however, as the population eman-
cipated itself, it came within the pale of laws originally enacted for the
benefit of a particular class. — Brodie, Hist, of Brit. Empire, Introd.
Fortunately for future ages, the barons were disposed to barter their

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 279

former enemies,, the more immediate and dangerous, as
well as the more remote, remained to threaten his
power.

The sons of Harold/ assisted by Dermot, King of
Ireland, now made a descent upon England with a fleet
of sixty-six vessels. They landed 011 the Devonshire
coast ; but were attacked and driven to their ships by a
body of Normans, led by a son of the Earl of Brittany.3
Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, Salop, with the Isle of Ely,
next raised the banners of insurrection.4 In the north,
the Governor of Durham was set upon and slain with
700 of his followers.5 The people of York next rose
and slew Fitz Richard, their Governor, and laid siege to
the new castle. A Danish fleet at the same time ap-
peared upon the Humber, landing an army under earl
Osborne, king Sweyir's brother; followed by another
fleet of 200 sail led by earl Hacon; both of whom, how-
ever, William contrived, by the promise of large sums,
to withdraw from the contest. But king Malcolm, at
the head of a strong force, supported by the English
exiles, made himself master of a great part of Cumber-
land and Northumberland, carrying his ravages as far
as Durham, destroyed Holderness, fired the church of
St. Peter at Weremouth, and put to the sword the
people who had taken sanctuary. Having perpetrated

power for trinkets and baubles, and, according to the progress of refine-
ment, dismissed part of their retainers, that with the produce which
these had been accustomed to consume, they might gratify their growing
taste for manufactures and foreign commodities. — Ibid. ; Smith, Wealth of
Nations, ii. 192, 5.

2 Their names were Godwin, Edmund, and Magnus, all whose efforts
to retrieve the fortunes of their family were ineffectual.

3 Ord. Vit. p. 513 ; W. Gemit. c. 41. 4 Ord. Vit. 514.

5 Robert Cummin ; this massacre took place the 29th of January, 1069.
—Ibid.

280 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

the greatest sacrileges and cruelties, sparing neither
age nor sex, he made prisoners of the young men and
women, whom he carried back with him, and condemned
them to a life of hopeless slavery.6

The English exiles, headed by Edgar Atheling and
the earls Waltheof and Merleswain, marched to the sup-
port of the York insurgents, then besieging the castle.
On the 19th of September the Normans made a despe-
rate sally and set fire to the town, by which a great
portion, including the cathedral, was burnt to the
ground. The inhabitants flew to arms, and, joining the
insurgent ranks, carried the castle by assault. The
whole of the garrison, to the number of 3000 men, with
the exception of the Governor and his family, were put
to the sword.

William, justly alarmed at the spread of the insurrec-
tion on all sides, despatched a force 7 under Roger de
Montgomery, followed by another led by Cospatrick, Earl
of Gloucester. The Danes had returned, loaded with
booty, to their ships ; king Malcolm advanced to meet
William's generals ; and the people of York were left
amidst the desolation of their houses and the wreck of
their property.

The fall of York Castle was the signal for fresh out-
breaks. Earl Hereward rose and established himself in
the Isle of Ely; Edric the Forester joined the Welsh,
and, combined with them, held William's generals,

6 There is every reason to conclude, both from dates and facts, that a
great part of the cruelties and spoliations of churches attributed to William,
in his expedition into Northumberland, were chiefly the work of the bar-
barous Scots. They left little for William to glean from their harvest of
spoil and devastation, or to add to the ruin of districts over which fire
and sword had previously passed.

7 S. Dunelm. Col. 198; J. Brompt. Col. 966.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 281

Briant and Fitzosborne, at bay. A simultaneous national
movement — one great united effort to throw off the
yoke of the Norman — seemed at this time to pervade
all ranks. It was hailed as the last solitary chance left
to Englishmen of liberating themselves from a foreign
thraldom, which no people who have once tasted free-
dom will patiently endure. The revolt became more
formidable than even William anticipated, when he
calculated only on the confiscations which would enrich
his treasury. His edicts and proclamations for the
better observance of what he emphatically termed
" God's peace " 8 had lost their force ; and, exasperated
at the insurgents, who had invited the Danes to winter
in England, he vowed " by the splendour of God," he
would hardly leave a single soul alive in all North-
umberland.9 He then commenced another of his rapid
marches towards the north, at the head of an imposing
army, at once to support his generals, to chastise the
rebel earls, and to carry the war into the heart of Scot-
land, the asylum and support of his English enemies.
Fortune had favoured the confederates at the outset ; but
the star of William was still in the ascendant, and shone
forth with brighter lustre amidst storm and darkness.
He seemed to glory in the display of that masterly
genius, however evil, by which he could always rule, if
he could not appease, the waves of a nation's strife.1

The mere report of the king's approach at the head
of his veteran troops, a vast array of his feudal power,

Speed ; Ord. Vit. 9 Chron. Sax.;; Ord. Vit. ; Walsingham.

1 " A daring pilot in extremity,
Pleased with the danger when the waves ran high

He sought the storms "

Dryden. Absalom and Achitophel.

282 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

led by his great vassals and foreign retainers of every
rank, with the fearful oath he had taken, struck terror
into the hearts of the English leaders. It seemed to
paralyse all their efforts ; and the terrible demonstra-
tion he made was alone almost sufficient to secure vic-
tory to his banners. It was a bloodless campaign,
except to the unfortunate inhabitants — the people who
were least to blame, yet were subjected to the terrific
devastations of both armies. The hopes of freedom
were too soon buried in the tyrant's peace of desolation
and despair.2 Not only submission, but vengeance was
the watchword of the Normans as they pursued the
retreating Scots, indignant that they had left them so
few spoils, and at the easy triumph of their great leader,
who thought it politic to accept the newly-tendered
allegiance of the English earls.

At the same time William did not forget his usual
diplomatic arts. Having received favourable accounts
from his queen-consort, then entrusted with the regency
of Normandy, of the undisturbed state of his continen-
tal relations with other powers, and of the continued
tranquillity of all his possessions under her able sway,3
he renewed his alliance with Denmark. He was now
at liberty to prosecute the war against Malcolm with
the utmost rigour. His object was to overtake the
Scotch, before they could receive reinforcements and
fall back upon their strongholds in the heart of the
country; and so rapid were his movements that he

2 R. Hoveden ; Ord. Vit. ; Chron. Sax. ; W. of Malms. ; Walsingham.

3 With the exception of her unhappy devotion to the interest of her
son Robert, Matilda displayed considerable talent and judgment for the
exercise of the high trust reposed in her ; a proof also of William's dis-
cernment. She was beloved and respected by the Normans.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 283

came up with them in the Lothian,, the fertile districts
of which he ravaged from end to end. Finding it use-
less to retreat, Malcolm, like a hunted deer, turned at
bay, and drew up his army for battle upon an acclivity,
in the strongest position that he could command.

On the approach of the mighty Norman, however,
marking his numbers, his more formidable discipline
and martial array, Malcolm, like the English earls, was
struck with dismay. His troops were equally daunted ;
and, observing their irresolution, he lost no time in
despatching a herald with terms of peace, such as he
conceived it would be the Norman's interest to accept.4

For some time William delayed accepting the prof-
fered conditions ; but, having received the securities he
desired, a peace was concluded, or rather purchased ;
and, on the same terms which he was always happy to
grant, he pardoned the exiles and received many of
them into favour. He pursued the same policy upon
his return with regard to the new Governor of York,
earl Waltheof ; and having fully re-established his power,
he kept his Christmas in that city. There he was
attended by the insurgent lords whom he had come to
subdue, and who had bought their safety with large
sums. Several of them he even promoted to higher
rank, especially the Saxon Waltheof, who eventually
became Earl of Northumberland.5

It is the principle of conquerors, such as William was
anxious to appear, to treat a vanquished people more
severely in proportion to the valour and pertinacity of
their defence. This castigation of qualities in them-
selves the object of esteem affords the best proof of the

4 " Melior certa pax, quam sperata victoria." — LIVY, xxx.

5 Ord. Vit. 815 ; Chron. Sax. 174 ; R. Hoveden, f. 258, c. 2.

284? WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

cruel injustice of imposing on a people a foreign yoke,
to which they show an unconquerable repugnance.6
Yet he knew how to appreciate valour in his chiefs ;
and the desperate character of Waltheof '& defence of
York extorted his admiration and respect. He not only
took him into his favour, but bestowed upon him the
hand of his beautiful niece Judith. But the unhappy
inhabitants of the insurgent districts had only their
lives and homes to offer as an expiation of their dire
offence; and they became the prey of rapacious and
infuriated soldiers.

Regarding himself as the rightful King of England,
after his first coronation in London, William now
looked upon the repugnance of the people as a crime.
Whenever they resisted his mandates or those of his
lieutenants, he seized upon their lands or slaughtered
them in the open fields. And notwithstanding his
professed adherence to legal measures and the oaths he
had taken to administer their common laws, confiscation
came to glean whatever conquest had spared before.7

Still the English were not to be scorned and tram-
pled upon with impunity ; it was the third insurrection
in the few years of his reign, and not the last. The
military chieftains who followed the Conqueror were
either possessed of no estates, or their recent acquisi-
tions greatly exceeded the value of their continent
possessions. The kingdom of England was too power-
ful to be treated as a mere appendage of a Normal
duchy, and the English tenantry too formidable to b(
resigned to the oppressive government of an absent
nobility. Hence both the sovereign and his noble
made England their principal residence ; and the Nor-

6 Sir J. Mackintosh, Hist, of Eng. i. 104. " Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 285

man nobles, who at first flattered themselves that they
had gained an appendage to their duchy, soon found
their mistake.8 The discipline of law to which they
were subjected, in addition to their greater dependence
by feudal tenure upon the crown, convinced them that
they ought not to prize too highly the apparent libe-
rality of William's grants;9 the fruits of his successful
campaigns both in the north and in the south.1

The popular assemblies of the soldiers at this period,
by order of the Conqueror, were considered by him as
an actual convocation of the military array of the
kingdom, for the two-fold purpose of maintaining their
discipline by review, and of holding the English in awe.
These he was in the habit of summoning both before
and after any of his grand expeditions ; and at Win-
chester a body of military obeyed the mandate, amount-
ing to no fewer than 60,000 men, the poorest of whom
held property adequate to the maintenance of a horse-
man and his attendants.2

8 Edin. Review, 26.

9 In the ensuing year (1070) the king bestowed a great number of
English counties and manors upon his favourite barons. Shrewsbury
was given to Roger de Montgomery, who already possessed Arundel and
Chichester ; Buckinghamshire to Walter Giffard ; Leicestershire to Hugh
de Grentemesnil ; Holderness to Odo, nephew of Count Thibeault, who
had espoused the Conqueror's half-sister Muriel. — Ord. Vit. ; Nouv. Hist,
de Normandie.

1 These lay investitures were not completed without the usual legal
formalities in the great councils. He could easily command a majority
by means of his numerous vassals, holding the crown lands ; and thus,
while ostensibly maintaining the laws of King Edward — the foundation
of our common law — he carried the system of transfer and confiscation to
any extent he pleased. But what were these boasted laws does not
so clearly appear. — Fortescue ; Brodie ; Alison ; Smythe ; 'Hallam ;
Lingard.

2 Alison ; Introd. Hist, of Europe, i. 40 ; Thierry, ii. 28G.

£86 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

But neither his Christmas festivities nor his tri-
umphal processions and reviews appear to have pro-
duced the effect that might have followed from a more
conciliatory policy on the part of William, or disposed
the people to contentment and submission. It was a
deceitful calm. On the first rumour of fresh disturb-
ances, William resumed his arms, and again marched
northward. He is stated to have laid waste the country
as he advanced; flight, fire and famine attended his
track, and the year 1070 was long painfully memorable
in the northern towns and villages, from the Humber
to the] Scottish borders. On his approach to Hexham,
all who could escape fled to the woods3 and mountains,
where many perished. The whole country between
York and Durham bore the aspect of a desert, without
dwellings and without people, and so continued nearly
ten years.4 It realised the appalling picture drawn by
Tacitus, — " a solitude — and it was called peace."

But terrible as this was, it was transitory; popula-
tion, trade and commerce ultimately reasserted their
reign; for William passed no laws to render famine
and desolation perpetual, nor prohibited the intercourse
of one portion of his subjects with the other, or with
the people of other lands.' The free trade promoted

3 Hoveden ; Ord. Vit. ; W. of Malms. ; W. Pict. ; Walsingham. The
devastation was followed by a famine, which swept off nearly the whole
population.— W. of Malms. 103 ; Hov. 451 ; Ord. Vit. 514.

4 R. Hov. 258, col. 2.

5 With all his love of absolute power,4 William never conceived an idt
of the refined barbarity to which modern legislation has attained. On
the contrary, among the older laws adopted by him was one that the
merchant who had gone three voyages in his own ship should be decl
noble and assume the dignity of a thane. Even the ceorl who
obtained five hides of land was entitled to promotion ; and though
authority, Ingulphus, has been ranked among the Apocrypha of English

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 287

by him between tlie English and the Normans enabled
each nation to give and take what was most suitable to
its wants, without any of those artificial restrictions
calculated to create jealousies and to divide them still
further from each other.

From this period King William left no arts nor any
degree of force unemployed to hold the people in sub-
jection. And as if Heaven had not yet exhausted the
vials of its wrath, the Scots made fresh incursions, —
king Malcolm's peace was not that of " God/' so stre-
nuously insisted upon by William in his proclamations.
He had rather the fear of the king than of Heaven
before his eyes, and, having made spoil and prisoners,
he hurried back into his mountain fastnesses.6 So
numerous were his captives that there was hardly a
village or even house in Scotland which did not boast
the possession of an English slave.7 Unable to over-
take him in his retreat, the king once more retraced his
march into the south.

The vice of avarice appears to have grown upon
William with length of years. Hearing that some of
the English had concealed their money or plate in the
monasteries, he ordered a strict search to be made, and
confiscated to the Crown whatever his spies and agents

History, we, in this case, wish to believe, in the words of an old divine,
" In apocryphis non omnia esse apocrypha."

6 The possession of Cumberland for a long period by Malcolm, as a fief
of the English crown, gave him immense advantages in making fresh in-
cursions. William restored it fully to the British dominion. Shak-
speare alludes to the fact of its possession by the Scotch king : —

" We will establish our estate upon
Our eldest Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
The Prince of Cumberland." — Macbeth ; Vestig. Ang.

" R. Hoveden ; Ord. Vit. ; Walsingham ; W. of Malms. ; W. Pict.

288 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

could lay their hands upon. Even this was not done
without the sanction and decree of the great council ;
which proves the respect in which William still pro-
fessed to hold the laws. These great councils, there-
fore, in the words of a learned and distinguished writer,8
were, very fortunately for posterity, never without their
use or importance to the Norman kings ; and they often
called these extraordinary meetings. But again, to the
more frequent recurrence of these special assemblages
and consequently to the existence of a national coun-
cil,9 there was another circumstance very favourable.
The crown was not transmitted as in France, for many
centuries from son to son. Most of the Norman kings,
in respect to hereditary right, were usurpers, as Wil-
liam II., Henry I., Stephen. Even Henry II. only
obtained possession of the crown after a compromise.
John again was a usurper; and even in the time of
Henry II., Richard I., Henry III., the great councils
were continually appealed to, from the circumstances
in which these monarchs were placed.

In this manner, most happily for England, and in-
deed for mankind, this assembly still made, though not
its regular yet its occasional appearance, and with
sufficient frequency to maintain its place in the legis-
lature. It was the policy of the Conqueror to ex-

8 Professor Smythe, Lectures on Modern History, Pickering, London,
1840-1.

9 Great councils were continued under William, as they had been in
the reign of Edward the Confessor. Their origin and constitution are as
uncertain as the periods when the people were first admitted to some
share in the legislature. It is agreed by Coke, Spelmau, Camden, Pryme,
that the commons formed part of the great synod prior to the Conquest,
but how they were summoned and what degree of power they possessed,
is a matter of doubt. — Smythe ; Hallam ; Brodie ; Alison ; Lingard ;
Fortescue ; Hale.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 289

tinguish the allodial tenures, and to render all the
proprietors of land vassals to the Crown. This, he at
last effected; the great council was thus entirely al-
tered, and came to consist of those only who held im-
mediately under the Crown. With regard to the vague
character of the particular laws of Edward to which
the Conqueror professed his strict adherence, swearing
to their maintenance upon those holy reliques he so
successfully employed, the same writer l judiciously
observes : — " It might be expected that Eadmerus, when
he gives the history of the reign of William, would
also have given us some account of this remarkable
code. But, in the course of the history, the monk, with
more than a monk's stupidity, instead of giving us
these laws, observes that he forbears to mention what
was promulgated by William with regard to secular
matters Our lawyers and antiquarians are there-
fore left to conclude that these celebrated laws of Ed-
ward the Confessor may now be imaged to us by what
is called the common law of the land, or the unwritten
collection of maxims and customs which are transmitted
from lawyer to lawyer, and from age to age, and have
obtained reception and usage among our courts and
judges." 2

Having completely suppressed the formidable insur-
rections which threatened the stability of his empire,
William on his return deprived Cospatrick of the earl-
dom of Northumberland, and bestowed it upon Waltheof,
whose fatal marriage with his niece had been solemnised
amidst the ruins of the city of York.3 By this master-

1 Professor Smythe, Lee. on Mod. History, lee. v. passim.
" Ibid. Notes to Lectures, &c., vol. i. p. 168.
3 M. Paris ; Ord. Vit. 521.
VOL. I. U

290 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

stroke of policy he at once conciliated the enmity of
the English, and prepared the way for future confisca-
tions, when he should have sufficiently enriched the earl
in his new lieutenancy, at the expense of his subor-
dinate vassals.

Having chastised the unruly Scots, William next
planned an expedition against the Welsh, whose re-
peated incursions on the borders, since the reign of the
Confessor, called for more energetic measures than the
generals sent against them had yet employed. He led
an army into Wales, drove them into their mountains,
compelled their leaders to do homage, and received
hostages for their future obedience and good faith.

All his declared enemies having been thus subdued,
and deprived of the power of future resistance,4 William
had now time to direct his views towards Normandy.
Not only had he reduced England to submission, but
every ally that had successively appeared in her cause ;
the Danes, the Scotch, the Irish, and the Welsh. Their
repeated expeditions, combined with the forces of the
insurgent earls, had been rendered abortive by the
military genius and statesmanlike talents of one man,
with the resources only of a small state, the feudal
grandees of which were but partially dependent upon
the Crown. With the very limited and uncertain power
he originally possessed, it required the most consum-
mate ability to acquire, to consolidate, and extend the
mighty dominion of which he was now the head.

By a system of gradual deprivation and confiscation
he had merged the interests of the English nobles and
clergy in the Crown; and his sole remaining cause
of anxiety was the questionable allegiance of those

4 " Quos viceris cave ainicos tibi credas." — Curt. lib. vii.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 291

Normans of every rank whom he had enriched at the
expense of the nation. Hence he regarded with jea-
lousy, not unmixed with alarm, his great vassals and
the few English nobles whom he had not yet dared
to strike. They were of the same high rank and am-
bitious character as those who had formerly betrayed
him, and even laid snares for his life. How well
founded were his fears, the events which were now fast
approaching speedily declared. A confederacy was
formed between the remaining heads of the nobility
and the vassals of both countries, who in the fate of
their predecessors seemed already to contemplate their
own. The sense of common danger became too strong
for national rivalry, and both nobility and people were
beginning to amalgamate from an instinctive feeling of
self-preservation against arbitrary and unlimited power.
The great dignities of the Church had been also sub-
jected to the Crown by the most respectful and natter-
ing demeanour towards the Holy See. The bishop and
aldermen 5 were no longer shire-judges who divided the
penalties and forfeitures with the king. He had clipped
the wings of their temporal power, and confined them
strictly within his newly defined limits, which bound
them to maintain the canons and customs of their
church, but not to go a step beyond. The new com-
mission to inquire into the state of the monasteries and

5 This title, of Saxon extraction, was at first applied to the peers of the
land, but not to princes, sons of the kings, or heads of royalty. These
ealdermem ranked with the bishops in the Saxon laws, and had the govern-
ment of counties, afterwards taking the name of earls ; and their office
had the same power and jurisdiction as that of the high sheriffs, with
some additional privileges. The last title was written liigli-gereves ; mean-
ing head-governors, whence our modern word, sheriff, literally, the
governor of a shire.

u 2

292 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

abbeys was conducted with a view to supply the funds
for his intended Norman campaign. The mere rumour
of this inquiry caused considerable treasures to be
.removed and concealed, and whenever these were
found, they were instantly confiscated for the use of the
Crown.6 Some entire foundations he appropriated,
took possession of the privileges of others, which he
only consented to restore on the payment of a fixed
sum; and not a few he put up to sale/ By means like
these, many of his Norman and other foreign adven-
turers of low extraction displaced the more respectable
English prelates of the land; and, with the clerical
power, the free baronies which belonged to it were
brought under his secular sway. He quartered both
foreign priests and soldiers upon the old religious esta-
blishments, farms, and castles. These new proprietors
acted also as spies, but, instead of receiving secret ser-
vice money, they were bound to replenish the exchequer
with the fruits of their own extortion.

William next extended his inquiry into the charters
and privileges of cities, towns corporate, and other poli-
tical bodies, refusing to continue or to renew them but
on condition of large sums being paid down. Great
part of the wealth of the nation was thus transferred
into the public exchequer ; and so impoverished were the
English people, through all their corporate possessions
and charitable foundations, that he no longer dreaded
those outbreaks and insurrections of which the main
resources were thus thoroughly cut off. When informed
upon one occasion by some of his officers that "the

6 Ang. Sac. ; Monasticon ; Vestig. Sacra ; Ord. Vit. ; W. Pict. ; Wace ;
Walsingham.
? Hay ward ; Abb£ Prevost ; W. Pict. ; W. of Malms.; Walsingham.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 293

people spake evil of him/' his laconic reply was, " It is
well that they can do me no evil." ! He availed him-
self, however, of the information to deprive them of
their arms ; and in the words of one of his quaint bio-
graphers, " he brake the heart of their courage," before
he again ventured out of the country. This he affected
to justify on the ground of policy and experience,
declaring " that he was not going to follow the example
of the Dane who, having obtained England, lost it to his
posterity by permitting the vanquished to retain their
authority and estates."

The severity of William's new regulations, as far as
the royal demesnes extended, proved the sincerity of
these words; and a variety of horrible punishments,
including mutilation for the slightest offences, especially
against his forest regulations, were put in force. Nor
only in the royal domains were the ancient laws ren-
dered nugatory ; for, by their extreme perversion, they
were become throughout the entire country a mere
dead letter. He had modelled his military code upon
the example of Caesar, who employed the Gauls to chas-
tise the Germans, instead of attacking with his own
Romans their strongholds in the Ardennes. William,
in like manner, with Harold's countrymen defeated the
sons ot Harold, after they had overthrown Ednothus,
the master of his horse. Thus, after the English had
slain each other, he reaped the spoils of the victory with
his Normans ; and, on occasion of repressing the dis-
turbances in Normandy, he invariably employed an
army composed almost wholly of English. He took
with him also the chief men of English descent, and
placed them in the front of the battle, relying on their

3 Ibid.

294 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

zeal for the honour of their country, and on their extreme
hatred of their oppressors, to chastise the insolence of
his refractory barons. Actuated by this policy, he
enjoined a few of the leading English, like Waltheof,
Earl of Northumberland, to watch during his absence
the proceedings of the Normans ; and a serious revolt,
headed by Fulk, Earl of Anjou, having just broken out
in Normandy, he lost no time in carrying his arms into
that country.

The English acquitted themselves with signal bravery,
and the insurgents, as well as their turbulent neigh-
bours, were soon reduced to sue for mercy.9 It was the
first time that William had employed the English on
foreign service, and he was highly gratified with their
good conduct. From this time he began to appreciate
the military character of the people, and abated some-
thing of that national favouritism which he had so long
displayed — a change of policy which gave greater sta-
bility to his power than all his previous acts of oppres-
sion. This improved feeling was not without its
favourable influence also upon the nation, and thus it
was that by slow degrees England began to assume that
rank in the eyes of other powers to which its genius
and resources entitled it. The Norman pride received
a check ; and the presence of an English army, which
overawed the Norman enemies of their king, was
viewed with strange sensations of jealousy, which soon
gave occasion for its obtaining still higher reputation in
its foreign campaigns.1

9 Ord. Vit. ; Chron. Sax. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Duchesne.

1 Between 1072 and 1074, an interval of comparative tranquillity, which
proved extremely favourable to the consolidation of William's power, both
in England and his foreign possessions.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

The ensuing period was spent in the enjoyment of
the society of his consort and his family, from whom he
had been for some time separated. He availed himself
of this interval of tranquillity to confirm his relations
with foreign powers, to promote his interests at the
Papal court, and to regulate the internal affairs of his
duchy.2

2 William naturally concluded that he had nothing to fear on the side
of England, after securing Waltheof in his interest by such magnificent
favours, including the hand of the Conqueror's beautiful niece Judith.
Earl Morcar was a prisoner, and the unhappy Edwin, his brother, had
fallen a victim to the treachery of his own companion. He was proceed-
ing from Ely on a mission to the King of Scotland, when his route was
betrayed by three brothers in whom he had rashly confided, and he was
slain with twenty of his followers by the Norman troops. " His death
was passionately bewailed by the English. Even the stern nature of the
Conqueror was melted into compassion, and he is said to have shed tears
when the bleeding head of the young Saxon, with its long flowing hair,
was presented to him by the traitors who had beguiled him into the
ambush. Instead of conferring rewards on the murderers, William con-
demned them to perpetual exile.

" A singular curiosity was turned up by the plough, 1 6 94, in a field near
Sutton, in the Isle of Ely, where Edwin and Morcar are said to have met.
It is a small shield of silver, about six inches long. On it was a Saxon
inscription, which has been found to express that it had the double pro-
perty of protecting the person who wore it, and the lover for whose sake
it was worn. If it belonged to the young earl Edwin, it was perhaps a
returned love-pledge from the betrothed princess." — Lives of the Queens
of England, by Agnes Strickland, i. 65.

Ingram, the learned translator of the Saxon Chronicle, has given this
Latin translation of the inscription. The following English version is
subjoined, as being more close and literal than that which appears in
Miss Strickland's work : —

*' Edwinus me pignore dat ; Me for a keepsake Edwin gave —

Ilia, 0 Domine, Domine, Grant this request, 0 Lord !

Bum semper defendat ; Him may she ever guard and save,

Q,use me ad pectus suum gestat Who wears me on her heart ;

Nisi ilia me alienaverit Unless she of her own accord

Sua sponte." From me consent to part.

As this talisman was found where earl Edwin fell, or at least where he was

296 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

But it seemed as if he were destined never to sheath
the sword. He was suddenly recalled to England by
the rebellion of his Norman barons, a prelude only to
the discord and unnatural violence which broke out
among his own sons. Indignant at the favour shown
by William to the Saxon Waltheof and his adherents,
and the selection of English officers and soldiers for his
expedition, they resolved no longer to submit to the
severity of his feudal sovereignty, but to strike a decided
blow. ' It was this extreme severity of discipline which
rendered William's reign a continued succession of
conspiracies and insurrections ; one long war to esta-
blish his despotic usurpation. He had placed himself
in direct opposition to the constitutional laws by which
he affected to govern. The unsettled character of his
institutions was produced by the same cause which had
secured his easy triumph over those of the Anglo-Saxons,
and by the absence of any real representative system.
This cause, as it has been well remarked by Alison in
his able and philosophical history, may be traced to the
limited number of free inhabitants by which all the
beneficent institutions of Alfred were blasted, and the
English nation was exposed for so long a period to deso-
lation and ruin from a small body of Northern invaders.3
Roger, Earl of Hereford, son of the famous Fitzosborne,
having promised the hand of his sister to Ralph de
Guader, Earl of Norfolk, was stung to the quick by the
king's refusal to consent to the marriage. Taking
advantage of his absence, they disregarded the royal

last heard of, circumstances seem to say that he was in possession of it,
and not the lady he loved, who had in all probability been forced to
return it to him. — Ibid.

3 Alison, Hist, of Europe, &c., Introd. i. p. 58 ; Turner's Anglo-Saxons,
ii. 66.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 297

veto, and invited their respective adherents to be present
at the celebration of the nuptials, including the Saxon
earl, who, besides being William's confidential adviser,
had been presented by him with the three earldoms of
Huntingdon, Northampton, and Northumberland. In
evil hour Waltheof consented to attend, but whether
to watch their proceedings, as he wished to make it
appear, or as one of the confederated chiefs, does not
seem to be proved.4

During the ensuing festivities, the malcontent earls,
in descanting upon their presumed wrongs, declared
that, if aided by the English, the Danes, and the Welsh,,
they would soon undertake to throw off the yoke of the
bastard William.5

The English earl was prevailed upon for the moment
to join their councils, but, as soon as the fumes of the
marriage-feast had subsided, he began to view the matter
in its true light, and upon his return his first resolution
was to communicate the whole affair, with the expression
of his repentance and regret that he had not at once
acquainted the king with the extent of the conspiracy.*
If he had indeed done so, he might have saved both his
life and his honour, instead of signing his own death-
warrant, by unfolding the whole to his treacherous
consort. Having conceived an illicit attachment to
another object, she lost no time in despatching a special
messenger to her uncle describing her husband's con-
duct in the blackest colours.7

4 Chron. Sax. ; Ord. Vit. ; W. of Malms. ; Rapin ; Henry ; Tyrrell ;
Knevett White.

5 Saxon Annals ; W. of Malms. ; Halket ; Brompton.

6 Hume ; Henry ; Lingard.

7 W. of Malms. ; Walsingham ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de
Nor. ; Henry ; Tyrrell ; Lingard.

298 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

The next dilatory step taken by the earl was to con-
sult the archbishop, Lanfranc, upon the conscientious
scruples he entertained, under the seal of confession.
That enlightened prelate, William's best friend and
wisest counsellor, conjured him to hasten at once to
Normandy, and throw himself upon the royal mercy.
But previously informed, and deeply incensed against
him, William refused to give him any credit for the
sincerity of his contrition, and turned from him with a
movement of extreme anger. He expressed the utmost
indignation that his own nobles, men the highest in his
favour and confidence, for whom he had made such sacri-
fices, even of his popularity and the best interests of the
country, whose laws he had sworn to maintain, should
seize the first opportunity to strike at his crown and life.

At the same time that he ordered the terrified earl
into custody, his confederates rightly interpreting the
motives of his flight, flew to arms, and were joined by
the other malcontents, most of whom were Normans.
But William's appearance in England, and his vigorous
measures, wholly disconcerted them. The Earl of Here-
ford was defeated and taken prisoner ; Ralph, Earl of
Norfolk, was also routed by bishop Odo, who had been
appointed regent of the kingdom. William then laid
siege to his castle, where he had taken refuge with his
lady and family. Alarmed at the idea of falling into
the incensed monarch's hands, he contrived to make his
escape by sea, and hastened to join the Danes. The
Danish king assisted him with a considerable force, with
which he hovered round the coast in the hope of making
a descent and raising the siege ; 8 but on hearing of

8 W. of Malms. ; Walsh gham ; Wace ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ;
Chron de Nor.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 299

William's success he took to liis ships and returned to
Denmark. His countess, however, a lady of high spirit,
played the part of a heroine, and gave the monarch no
inconsiderable annoyance.9 She held the castle stoutly,
animated the garrison, and appeared upon the walls.
She was provided with everything for a long defence,
and contrived to cut off not a few of William's veteran
soldiers.

So far from appearing exasperated, the king was amused
at the manoeuvres of his fair adversary. An interchange
of chivalrous missives, in which William was a great
adept, ensued, with brave challenges, full of gaiety and
mock defiance. All this, as in his earlier wars, seemed
to take the fancy of the royal Norman for the moment.
A passion for women was not one of William's foibles ;
but, excepting the imputation of bestowing occasional
correction l upon his consort, he invariably treated them
with respect and honour. He did not even chastise the
refractory countess with his own hands, when she sur-
rendered at discretion ; but permitted her to depart and
rejoin her husband, with the observation that he did not
make war on ladies. But the heroine, like many of
those upon whom the king had conferred favours, took a
singular way of expressing her gratitude. For on hear-
ing of his subsequent retreat from before the castle of
Dol, on the continent, she exercised her wit upon the
occasion, complimenting him upon the speed with which
he ran ; and assuring him that, had it not been for his

9 Ord. Vit; R. Hoveden, 434-5 ; Chron. Sax. 182-3 ; Prevost; Vie de
Guilleaume, &c. ii. 90, 4.

1 Neither little nor unfrequent, if we may believe some of the early
historians, unless being rolled in the mire, being well thumped, and beaten
with a bridle almost to death, and, it is even added, tied to the tail of a
horse, be gentle castigation. — Ord. Vit. ; Prevost.

300 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

excessive politeness to her, she would not have left him
a single soldier alive to gratify his other enemies.3
William, with apparent good humour, sent her a gallant
reply, " applauding her courage, and regretting only that
the English court should be deprived of a lady so well
fitted to adorn it, through the base and treacherous
conduct of her husband."

William had more than once occasion to exercise the
same philosophic gallantry or patience, whichever it
might be, towards some of the high-spirited and resolute
of the sex whose orders militated against his own.
Several of the Norman dames, indignant at the pro-
tracted absence of their lords, sent very peremptory com-
mands for their instant return. More than one obeyed,
preserving their allegiance to the ladies at the expense
of that due to the sovereign — such was the case of the
Earl of Grentemesnil, whose lady appears to have imbibed
an inveterate dislike to her sovereign. She defamed
him loudly in his absence, excited his Normans to revolt,
and sought to create discord in the Conqueror's family,
by the unscrupulous circulation of rumours that he had
actually made attempts upon her own virtue.3 The
Conqueror's enemies eagerly propagated these vile
calumnies, which extended almost to every country in
Europe.

The mother of Harold is said to have taken especial
pleasure in aiding the Norman dames in the dissemina-
tion of these derogatory reports. She sent a full
budget of them to Sweno, King of Denmark, and,
among the rest, she averred that the tyrant had not

2 Prevost, ii. 93.

3 Ord. Vit. ; Henderson ; Prevost ; W. of Malms. ; Saxon Annals j
Brompton ; Rapin ; Henry ; Lingard.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 301

hesitated to commit any crime which administered to
the least of his gratifications ; that he had actually dis-
honoured a young lady, the daughter of one of the
canons of Canterbury/ and the niece of a Kentish
nobleman, who had in consequence joined the recent
insurrection. This improbable story is asserted to have
reached the ears of queen Matilda, and to have pro-
duced a very serious domestic misunderstanding, one of
the first which had ever arisen between the royal pair.
Seeking, with a deep-rooted love of revenge, an oppor-
tunity to wreak her jealousy on the presumed object of
William's passion, it was not long before the unfortunate
lady fell into her power. The account, as handed down
to us,5 is that the canon's daughter was inhumanly put
to death by the secret orders of Matilda, after every
trace of her beauty had been as far as possible obliterated.
The Conqueror is there described as having been seized
with such a transport of rage on learning the barbarous
vengeance taken by his consort, that, on his return to
Normandy, he had recourse to his favourite mode of
chastisement. This was with a bridle, which he used to
such purpose that his consort died shortly afterwards.6

The king, with equal wisdom and magnanimity, took
no measures to punish the authors of these absurd tales.
From the time of the death of Earl Edwin, on the
other hand, his policy towards the chief insurgents
was rather of a conciliatory character. He had bestowed
on that formidable conspirator, Edric the Forester, a
responsible office near his own person. The traitor

4 W. of Malms. ; Ord. Vit.

5 Rapin ; Hearne ; Cottonian MSS. ; Robert of Gloucester.

6 Unfortunately for the credibility of the Lady of Grentemesnil, who
originated these calumnies, Queen Matilda is said to have survived ten,
years after she received this curious infliction of matrimonial discipline.

302 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR,

Cospatrick had been made Earl of Gloucester, and
was employed in the Scotch wars. Eustace, Earl of
Boulogne, who had joined the malcontents, and
attempted to surprise the castle of Dover, he restored
to his honours, and treated with the utmost regard.

He was satisfied with committing to prison the two
powerful rebels, Waltheof, son of earl Siward and Earl
of Northumberland, and Fitzosborne, Earl of Here-
ford. Edgar Atheling, the assumed cause of all the
conspiracies, who had fled into Scotland, and who often
appeared in arms against him, he repeatedly forgave and
restored to honour and favour, though the undisputed
heir of the line of Saxon kings. He attended the Con-
queror at his court at Caen, in 1074, and was not only
pardoned for all past transgressions, but pensioned with
a daily allowance of a pound of silver,7 and treated
with every distinction due to his rank as the head of
the English nobility. Subsequently, at his own request,
he was handsomely equipped by William for the Holy
Wars, in which he joined the Emperors of Germany
and Greece, and acquired a fair reputation among the
first crusaders. After his return he was also allowed a
pension of twenty shillings a day, in addition to several
lucrative offices in the country ; where he is said " to
have mellowed to a good old age 'in pleasure and vacancy
of affairs, preferring safe subjection before ambitious
rule, accompanied both with danger and disquiet."5

7 Saxon Annals ; Brompton ; W. of Malmsbury.

8 Hay ward, Life of K. William I.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 303

CHAPTER VII.

King William proclaims an amnesty — Proceeds against the rebel chiefs —
Acts of the council — Waltheof, the Saxon earl, condemned to die —
Treachery of his consort Judith — National sympathy displayed — Peti-
tions in his favour — Justice of the sentence considered — Tried by old
Saxon laws — Ratified by the Council — Execution of the English earl —
Forfeiture of his estates — The Norman barons — Condemned to im-
prisonment— Trial by their peers — Curia reyis — Unsettled state of
England — National characteristics — False position of the king — Suffer-
ings of the people — Character of the Norman and Anglo-Saxon govern-
ments— Norman life and manners — Heroic and feudal institutes —
Orders and fraternities — Field sports — Fashions — Style of dress —
Handsome mansions — Camp and court of the Conqueror — Baronial
seats — Splendid establishments — Prelatic pride and pomp — Warrior
bishops — Knights and gentry — Norman soldiers — Indomitable pride
and ruthless turbulence — The two people compared — The king and
queen revisit Normandy — Abbey of Fescamp — The Earl of Norfolk —
William in Brittany — Is compelled to retreat — Anxious for repose —
New enemies — His own household — Scene between the king and his
consort — Quarrels of his sons — Robert flies from court — Raises the
Standard of revolt — Powerfully supported — Distressing scenes — Open
war — Hostile encounters — William wounded by his son — His English
army repulsed — Alarm and grief of the queen — She mediates a peace
between the father and son — And between the brothers — The Con-
queror returns to England — Accompanied by Robert — War with the
Scots — Robert leads an army against them — Founds Newcastle
— Anecdotes of William and his court — Devotes himself to national
works — Character of his feudal government — Different from that of
France and other countries — Anglo-Saxon laws — Papal authority in
England — Centralization system — State councils — The court of Rome
— Luxury of the Normans — Dainty viands — Style of living — Amuse-
ments of the court — Of the barons and knights — Military assemblies —
Reviews, &c. — Theatre — Games — Superstitions — Goblins —Fortune-
tellers— Legends and traditions.

KING William had once more arrived in England dur-
ing the autumn of 1074. He found public tranquillity

304 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

perfectly restored by the vigilance and activity of
bishop Odo and his advisers. This did not render him
either supine or confident : the embers of revolt were
smothered but not extinguished in the breasts of his
great Norman barons. He had proclaimed an act of
amnesty for the insurgents ; but this was not general.
The Earl of Hereford 9 was held a close prisoner : many
of his English adherents of inferior rank were put to
death, and recourse was even had to the barbarous
punishment of mutilation.1

In the case of the Earl of Northumberland, also, re-
lated by marriage to William, a variety of motives
combined to urge the king to drive matters to ex-
tremity ; the chief of which was his desire of adding to
the demesne of the Crown. It was as easy for him
to procure an act of condemnation, as to issue an am-
nesty; and though the unfortunate earl had revealed
the conspiracy, and been engaged in no overt act of
treason, while the rebel Normans received a lenient
punishment, the English earl was finally condemned to
suifer death. The possession of immense wealth was,
doubtless, his real crime, not less in the eyes of William
than in those of his treacherous and abandoned niece.
He was equally obnoxious to the Norman courtiers;
but so sensible was the monarch of the injustice of the

9 Induced by the recollection of this bold Norman's services, as well as
those of his father, it is supposed that the Conqueror would gladly have
set him at liberty, if he had expressed his repentance and sued for grace.
As an earnest of his favour, William is said to have sent him a richly
embroidered robe, which the earl in a fit of passion threw into the fire.
Highly incensed at this contempt of his favours, William, with his usual
bitter imprecation, vowed that he should remain in prison during his life ;
and he kept his word. — Ord. Vit. ; Henry ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Ves-
tigia Ang. i Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 305

sentence, that he retained him prisoner some time
before he yielded to the savage importunities of the
earl's wife. This artful and infamous woman, with
some other Norman dames, too nearly resembling her,
presented a striking contrast to the modest, unobtrusive
qualities of the Saxon ladies of rank, especially those
of the royal blood.2 The Norman Judith and her in-
triguing partisans, like the lady of Grentemesnil, no in-
active politicians of their day, were more intent upon
dividing the spoils of the unhappy earl, than using the
slightest influence to avert his fate. From the English
ladies of rank, on the contrary, even those wedded to
Norman lords, the petitions to the throne for mercy, in
person, by deputies, and by letter, were innumerable
and incessant, especially before the warrant for his
death was signed.

The English nobility and clergy, such at least as
remained, were not less zealous, while the Normans
who had attempted to decoy him into their snares,
indignant at his having discovered their treachery,
joined the lady Judith and her party in encouraging
William to pursue him to the death. The agitation
throughout the capital and the country was extreme,
when the royal will was made known ; for to put to

2 The sisters of Edgar Atheling, and their relatives and descendants,
were generally patterns of female excellence, piety, and unassuming worth.
They displayed nothing of that demoniac spirit of cruelty and vengeance
which so frequently inspired queen Matilda and her Norman ladies, and
others of French or foreign blood. It was just, therefore, that the female
Saxon line should be restored to the throne, to the great and universal
joy of the English. Editha, widow of Edward the Confessor, died at the
close of this year (1074). She was interred by the side of her consort, in
Westminster. Algith, the widow of Harold, long survived her sister-in-
law, and passed the rest of her days in obscurity.

VOL. I. X

306 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

death, an enemy in cold blood was, at that period,
esteemed an offence and an insult against society and
its prevailing ideas of public justice. No law then dis-
guised its cool atrocity ; and the crime consisted not in
that act of bearing arms, which has since been dignified
with the name of high treason, but in the illegality and
injustice of a lord paramount formally putting to death
one of his vassals, not in open combat, for presuming to
appear in arms against him. The same rule applied to
the monarch and his subjects : and in the feudal code,
bad as in some respects it was, we nowhere find that bear-
ing arms openly, or, in other words, what, was afterwards
described as high treason, was imputed as a crime de-
serving of death. The offence of William, therefore,
against the usages, if not the admitted laws, of feuda-
lity and custom, was the more reprehensible ; for there
was no existing Norman law, much less any common
law emanating from a grand council, to authorise him
in putting the Earl of Northumberland to death. And
granting even that it did,3 the blackness of the deed is
not in the slightest degree relieved; for it would not
then have been even judicial murder, inasmuch as the
unfortunate nobleman had not incurred the penalty of
appearing in arms against his superior lord in this
instance. On the contrary, he had received a free
pardon for having done so on a former occasion, and,
instead of suffering any penalties, had been promoted
to the first offices in the State.

The example of capital punishment, moreover, begun
by William, was followed by the most lamentable con-
sequences, both to the Norman princes themselves and

3 It was by an old Saxon law that Waltheof was tried and condemned.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 307

to the nobility and the people. It brutalised their dis-
position, and ensanguined their laws, affording a fatal
precedent for succeeding monarchs to imbrue their
hands in the blood of the most innocent as well as the
noblest of the land, nay, in that of their nearest relatives ;
breaking through the most solemn compacts and the
most sacred ties, by punishing with death every look,
word, or act, which they chose to interpret amiss. This
sanguinary principle, once admitted, reached its fatal
climax in the reign of our eighth Henry, when the bare
idea of compassing the death of a king, if it could be
dragged to light, became a capital crime — called high
treason.

One of the first martyrs to this new royal doctrine,
on the 29th of April 1075, the earl was conducted from
his prison to a rising ground near the gates of Winches-
ter, and there fell almost the last of the Anglo-Saxon
nobles upon a Norman scaffold.

The earl's death was bitterly deplored by his country-
men of all ranks.4 Nor was it long before King Wil-
liam's injustice and ingratitude recoiled upon his own
head. Discord, misconduct, duplicity, and, in short,
high treason in abundance, sprung up: in the bosom of
the new lawgiver's own family; including even the
treason of a consort whom he had so ardently loved,
and in whom he had so implicitly confided.

The shameless life, also, of William's niece, the adul-
terous and sanguinary Judith; the luxurious excesses
and tyranny of his uterine brother Odoj, with the in-
creasing violence and rapacity of his great vassals in the
abuse of their feudal privileges, from the pressure of the

4 Ord. Vit. 536, 7 ; W. of Malms. ; Henry ; Lingard ; Hume.
x 2

308 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

chain upon themselves, naturally excited uneasy if not
remorseful feelings in the breast of the king.

Still William retained some great and magnanimous
qualities, some enlightened views of the national interest
and honour, in his relations with other states, as well as
in his civil judicature, military regulations, and great
public works. These were adapted in some measure to
redeem his oppressive rule, and entitle him to the repu-
tation acquired by every strong-minded and high-spirited
sovereign, the honour and safety of whose kingdom are
guaranteed by his own lofty ambition, confidence, and
self-respect.

There are also historians, it is just to state, who have
attributed the sufferings of the English rather to im-
perious circumstances, to the peculiar position of Wil-
liam, and the necessary system of which he formed only
a subservient part, than to his own despotic temper, his
errors, or his crimes : a system, moreover, which, like
his own character, contained much both of good and
evil, calling forth the proudest energies of men, yet
sullied with all the tyranny and excesses inseparable
from their conduct, when placed in high but not duly
responsible situations of command.

There were besides a vast number of inferior vassals,
of subordinate authorities and agents, over whom he
could exercise no immediate control.5 This, however,

5 Many have esteemed as advantages those courtesies and chivalric
manners, and that taste for refinement and magnificence, which serve to
elevate the character and pursuits of a people. The national edifices
became more substantial and elegant. The learning of the clergy was
infinitely more respectable a short time after the Conquest. These im-
provements were probably owing to the more free intercourse with France,
and the closer dependence upon Rome which the Conquest produced ;
though the happiness of the people could be little promoted by the theo-

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 309

forms no justification of William's conduct any more
than of his weakness, in giving the reins to the atrocious
passions of his niece, and to the avaricious and revengeful
spirit of his consort or of his own direct vassals. The
centre of a system of military sway, the harsh discipline
and gradations of which merged the noblest virtues and
the greatest qualities in its fearful course, William was
himself the sport of circumstances, and could neither
direct nor control their power. The criminality of
attempting to fix it by force upon a people whom he
affected to govern by law, yet by law to violate the con-
stitution he had sworn to maintain, must ever rest upon
the head of the Norman Conqueror. That he did this
with the consent of the " great council " or parliament
of the nation, then also a court of criminal judicature,
rather aggravates than offers any extenuation of his
guilt. That the great Norman barons, the Earls of
Norfolk and Hereford, who had levied war against him,
were tried in the curia regis by their peers, the " proceres
regni" and deprived of their estates, was only a mockery
of justice in a tribunal where the king's influence was
supreme.6

The vices of avarice and revenge, the two great failings
in William's character, were brought into fatal promi-

logical reputation of Lanfranc and Anselm. The chief benefit, next to
that of a vigilant police, was the security they found from invasion on the
side of Denmark and Norway. The organisation of a feudal militia
deterred those predatory armies, which had brought such repeated calami-
ties upon England. — Hallam, Middle Ages, ii. 167, 8.
f^G The Earl of Hereford appeared before the court, and was condemned
to perpetual imprisonment. The Earl of Norfolk was sentenced to exile.
Earl Waltheof was tried in the same court, most probably according to
the old Anglo-Saxon law, of which William availed himself to put him to
death. — Ord. Vit. ap. Mazeres ; Edin. Review, vol. xxvi.

310 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

nence ' by the action of such a system ;8 a system, as esta-
blished in England, into which no government, however
enlightened, no free laws, neither love of justice nor
generosity, could infuse many alleviations.9 In maturer
age also, it tended to bring the Conqueror's worst
qualities, aggravated by the avarice and ambition of his
family and his court, into more startling display. He
had begun to shed the blood of his nobles, as well as of
his people, an example not lost upon his successors.
That fatal moral Rubicon once passed, there is no
retreat for monarchs more than for other "men of
blood ; " and, by the slaughter and destruction of their
people, they whet their appetite for the lives of their
wives, their children, and the most faithful of their
friends and servants. It was the unhappy tendencies
of a bad system, acting upon men of violent passions,
which rendered the lives of the Norman monarchs an
incessant source of turbulence — one continued sangui-
nary career.

Many of the Anglo-Saxon reigns had been long and
peaceful, when not disturbed by foreign invasion, up to
their close ; the elements of sovereign power harmonised
with the character and the usages of the people ; and

' < 7 His exactions, both feudal and in the way of tallage from his bur-
gesses and the tenants of his vassals, were almost as violent as his con-
fiscations He let his crown lands at the highest rate to farm, little

caring how much the cultivators were racked by his tenants. — Hallam,
Middle Ages, vol. ii. 164; Saxon Annals.

8 In England the feudal system can hardly be thought to have existed
in a complete state before the Conquest. — Ibid.

9 The breaking up of the old laws of succession and of the equal distri-
bution of property in favour of primogeniture, hereditary descent, and the
monopoly and accumulation of land and wealth into masses, was, pre-
eminently, the work of William and of his successors, and the cause of
public calamities not yet brought to a close.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 311

hence the unceasing clamour of that people for the
restoration of their ancient laws — a clamour yet far
from being appeased. It was different with the Nor-
mans and their feudal sway, which succeeded in sweep-
ing before it the more calm, steady, and self-balanced
government of the Anglo- Saxons, the no distant descend-
ants of those free Germans described to us in such
glowing colours by Tacitus. Such a government, once
established, as it was in England, was purely of a defen-
sive character : it was enough for it to mature its plans,
and occupy itself with the self-subsisting power of its
internal administration, without any views of foreign
aggression — a comparative stranger to the feudal and
adventurous spirit animating the institutions of almost
every European state, and the daring and aggressive
power of which was admirably represented in the genius
of William and his restless Normans. Such a genius,
wielding the feudal heroism of Europe, was more than
a match for an established aristocratic monarchy, how-
ever powerful, with only a limited portion of general
freedom, as under the Anglo-Saxons.1 For it must not
be forgotten that the majority of the people were serfs.
The two nations, moreover, were very opposite both in
character and manners, and in some respects, as we
have shown, the Saxons were the more estimable and
free from prevailing vices. They seemed to exemplify
in their distinctive features the singular doctrine of
universal attack and resistance, as expounded by the
great Cuvier ; so ill were the elements of national cha-

1 It has been said, perhaps by their enemies, that the Saxon people
had a sovereign contempt for literature, holding it as a notable maxim,
that a boy who dreaded the rod of a pedagogue behind him, would never
be able to face an enemy before. — Vestigia Aug. i.

312 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

racter in both adapted to harmonise or amalgamate;
and so incessantly did they contend, defy, and resist a
merging of interests during a period of almost a cen-
tnry and a half. The English were serious, energetic,
endowed with great passive and resisting courage, but
not active ; with little genius for plotting, or acting on
any regular and combined plans, in which William and
his people so much excelled. The Normans, on the
other hand, were a cheerful, witty, and vivacious
people,2 delighting extremely in what may be termed
practical jokes, and by some people innocent frolics and
convivial jocularity.3

So fond, indeed, were the old Normans, when once
accustomed to the refinements of the South, of engaging
in ' ( the keen encounter of the wits," as already shown
in the wars of William, that the greatest enemies, in
the very heat of a siege, sometimes suspended their
hostilities, in order to engage in a less dangerous com-
bat of repartee. When one of the contending parties
gave this challenge, he appeared arrayed in white, the
acknowledged livery of peace/ and the opposite of the
red ensign, denoting the hue of brute battle and of
blood. The Normans were also a more economical
people, and lived at less expense, as well as with more
elegance, than the English. They had the greatest
reverence for the laws of feudal chivalry ; the honour
of knighthood was then an object of ambition to the
greatest princes. The noblest began their career in

2 It is supposed that the rich and liberal grants for which the Norman
dukes, and William in a less degree, were so celebrated, were always
made out, like that to his Norman huntsman, in more convivial hours
when avarice and judgment slept. 3 Henry, vol. iii. 571.

4 Ord. Vit. 789; Hichesii Thesaur. t. i. przefat. 17-18.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 313

this feudal school as pages or valets.5 Names now
appropriated to domestic servants were then often given
to the sons and brothers of kings.6 They were next
advanced to the more honourable rank of esquires,
admitted into more familiar intercourse with the
knights and ladies of the court, and perfected in
dancing, riding, fencing, hawking, hunting, tilting, and
other popular exercises, the accomplishments of the
day.

Soon the courts of kings, princes, and barons became
colleges of chivalry, as the universities of arts and
science. Many of the young nobility, before knight-
hood, adventured from the king's court, and from the
houses of bishops, earls, and barons, to make trial of
their strength and skill in arms. At length, the signal
was given, and the sports began. The youths, divided
into opposite bands, encountered each other; some
fled, others pursued, and sometimes the one party was
made to overtake and put the other to the rout.7

Not uiifrequently, from the rude or refined sports
pursued in early life, brotherhoods and societies were
formed, which became distinguished in European annals,
and some of which exist to this day. Soldiers, knights,
or vassals, before strangers to each other, would become
what is termed "sworn brothers/'8 shared the same
dangers, and divided equally all their possessions.

Thus, when King William, after the Conquest,
granted the two great honours of Oxford and St.
Waleries to Robert d'Oyley, the latter immediately

5 Memoire sur 1'ancienne Chevalerie, par M. de Sainte Palaye.

6 Les Mceurs des Frangois, par Le Gendre, 63 ; Henry, Hist, of Great
Britain.

' Stephaned Descript. Lond. a J. Sparke, edit. 1713, 7, 8.
8 Du Cange, Gloss. Voc. Fratres Conjuncti.

314 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

bestowed one of them on his sworn "brother, Roger
d'lvery.9 In Wales and other parts this custom fre-
quently led to the most deadly feuds, each of the great
families, with whom a royal scion had been brought up,
endeavouring with all their power to raise " their sworn
brother" and favourite prince to the government.1

Devotion towards the ladies was esteemed by the
Normans among the most indispensable qualifications
of a true and gentle knight. In this school of chivalry
the youth were carefully instructed in the arts of love
and all the nicest rules and punctilioes of a virtuous
and honourable gallantry.2

The Anglo-Normans invariably selected the fair
objects of their devotion in the same courts where they
were brought up. Upon these they lavished all their
vows, and often, with rather more sincerity, all their
money, to give greater zest to their newly-acquired
arts of pleasing.3

The serious preparations connected with receiving the
honour of knighthood were more imposing even than
those introductory to free-masonry at any period. They
had their peculiar noviciate, rigid discipline, services,
and most singular penances, too numerous to dilate
upon. But for men of spirit no institution could be
better adapted to excite the ardour of the young, whether
nobles or commoners, and for acquiring the accomplish-
ments necessary to obtain an honour courted by the
greatest monarchs.4

Such an institution necessarily led to the more
general adoption of the use of surnames, chiefly from

9 Kennett's Parochial Antiquities, p. 57.

1 Girald. Cam. Ap. Ang. Sacra, ii. 490.

2 Memoires sur la Chevalerie, &c. part i. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 315

the date of the Conquest. Like family arms, they were
at first confined to persons of rank, as we may perceive
from the Conqueror's rolls, or of newly-acquired fortune,
who assumed their surnames from their castles or their
estates.5

Hence the great coincidence between those of so
many noble families in England, with several towns,
castles, and estates in Normandy, France, and Flanders,
whose possessors retained the same names subsequently
to their settlement here at the Conquest. It was not
till some time afterwards that surnames were generally
assumed by the people. Individuals were designated
merely from some quality, office, or occupation; and
sometimes from personal peculiarities, as the Black, the
White, the Long, the Strong, the Swift, the Lightfoot
or the Heavyside ; by which kings also were occasion-
ally distinguished, as Edmund Ironside, Harold Hare-
foot, &c.6

Contemporary with the camp and court of William
was likewise introduced a more magnificent and splendid
style of living, with a greater regard to state, dignity,
and elegance. The English nobles were thought to be
too much addicted to feasting and drinking, and spent
their ample revenues7 in comparatively mean and
lowly dwellings. The Conqueror, on the other hand,
brought a taste for stately edifices, both public and
private, and for more costly tables, splendid dress, and
elegant equipages.8 William's own hunting seats and
great vassal farms were almost innumerable ; many of
his great barons held counties as well as castles ; the

5 Camden's Remains, &c. 6 Vestigia Ang. c. 8 ; Henry, vol. ii. 563.
~> W. of Malms. 1. iii. p. 57, col. 2 ; Henry, vol. iii. 565 ; Ord. Vit. ;
Nouvelle Hist, de Normandie. 8 Ibid.

316 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Earl of Shrewsbury nearly the whole of Salop, and the
Earl of Chester all the rich and powerful districts in
Cheshire.

Nor were the establishments of his great prelates
upon a scale of power less extended and grand, combin-
ing, as they did, both temporal and spiritual dignities.
Bishop Odo had immense possessions in different coun-
ties, and Longchamps, Bishop of Ely, had 1500 horse-
men to form his retinue, while his open house and table
exhibited all the abundance and luxury that art or
nature could supply,9 every delicacy that a Roman
emperor or pontiff could have desired.

The Conqueror set the example for this studied mag-
nificence and show, by his stated progresses and the
royal feasts which he held at the recurring seasons of
Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide ; as if preparatory
to ushering in the dawn of the gorgeous tournament,
the holy festivals, and the magnificent array of the
first crusades.1

Still the interior of this gay, chivalric, and truly
baronial life, could lay claim to few of the polished
refinements, or even the accommodations, enjoyed by
the middle ranks in modern times. Several estates, for
instance, were held in England upon the tenure of find-
ing clean straw for the King's dormitory, and litter for
his rooms, as often as he had occasion to lodge out of
his own residences.2 Even at a subsequent period it is
alluded to, as a proof of the growth of luxurious man-
ners, in the case of Thomas a Becket, " that he

J. Brompt. 1793 ; Benedict. Abbas, 70, 1 ; Anglia Sacra, t. i. 407. ;

1 M. Paris, p. 108 ; Le Gendre, 88.

2 Blount's Fragmenta Antiquitatis, 28 ; Camden's Britan. i. 311
Henry, vol. iii. 567.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 317

commanded his servants to cover the floor of his dining
room with clean straw or hay every morning in winter ;
with fresh "bulrushes and branches of trees every day in
summer ; that such of the knights and small gentry as
came to dine with him, and could not find room on the
benches, might sit upon the floor comfortably, without
spoiling their clothes." 3

Unquestionable valour, combined with studied pru-
dence and fraud, was the chief characteristic of the
Norman soldier, and it might be added, of the church
militant as well. We have seen how William, who was
certainly no vain boaster, addressed his army ; modestly
assuring them that they were the greatest of mortals,
when he wanted to call forth all their energies. But,
whatever were their other vices, the Normans were free
from the revolting disguises of cant and hypocrisy;
they called things by their right names ; and when they
trampled upon the English, and extorted from them the
last doit, they did not insult them by assuring them
that it was all meant for their good. They treated them
as the last of human wretches, " slaves of the slave and
lowest of the low," because they had no stake in the
property of the country, nothing but what was subject
to Norman imposts ; and no wonder that the name of
Englishman became a reproach, and that he was called
what he was, when he existed only as the property-slave
of the Norman tax-man.

With regard to ignorance of the true nature and
objects of government, and of their rights as men and as
citizens, the Normans were inferior to the people whom
they had conquered. It was the superiority of brute force,

3 W. Stephaned. 14 ; Observations on the Statutes, 116 j Du Cange,
Gloss. Voc. lyastiquem.

318 WILLIAM THE CONQUEHOK.

which, when overthrown at the close of a century and a
half, changed only its name, not its oppressive cha-
racter, and instead of one tyrant became a legion, and
sought to perpetuate its slavery by legislative enact-
ments.

In respect to manners, likewise, the Normans, though
more polished and advanced, according to the received
ideas of feudal civilisation, were more barbarous in a
really social and political point of view. The vicious
and unhappy position in which the two people stood
towards each other had of itself a deteriorating influ-
ence, and, besides the vices imported, brought some of
the worst passions into display.

It is not surprising therefore that we cannot speak
of the Norman manners in 'England with commenda-
tion. " It would be highly improper," in the words of
a learned historian,4 " to stain the pages of history with
proofs and examples on this subject, which might easily
be produced." Of the corruption of public manners it
will probably be thought sufficient evidence that stews
were established by law in England, and that ladies of
pleasure who followed the camps and courts were formed
into regular incorporations, and placed under the
government of officers called their mareschals.5 These
great offices had estates annexed to them, which, like
other property obtained upon no less exceptionable
term$ were made hereditary in the chief families.
The king was himself perhaps one of the most sagacious
farmers of taxes and public economists of Europe. He
converted even the vices of his subjects into a source

4 Henry, Hist, of England, iii. 178.

5 Stowe's Survey, ii. 7 ; Blount's Fragmenta Autiquitatis, 8, 80, 82,
85, 126.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 319

of private emolument; and was assuredly the most
powerful if not the most politic monarch of his age.
Yet he was only the head of the legion; earls, barons,
sheriffs, judges, and foresters without number, played
the petty despots in their several districts. But they
failed to inspire the respect, or rather "me fear, every-
where felt at the approach of their deep-sighted and
invincible master. Could they once have freed them-
selves from the bondage of his ruling genius, character,
and authority, the English at this period would soon
have shaken off the Norman yoke.

For some time before the Conqueror's death, the state
of England is described by contemporary historians as
wretched and degraded in the extreme. The Normans,
even by their own admission, had fully executed the
wrath of Heaven upon the English. There was hardly
one of that people left intrusted with any degree of
power ; they were all involved in one general servitude
and sorrow.6

In the year 1075, William and his consort held their
court at Eescamp, where they celebrated the Easter fes-
tival with great magnificence, attended by many princes
and the nobility of the surrounding states, to witness
the august ceremony of the profession of the princess
Cicely their eldest daughter, at the venerable abbey of
the same name.7 She was there veiled a nun by the
hand of the Archbishop John, and consecrated to the
holy and indivisible Trinity, under the tutelage of the

6 Stowe's Survey, ii. 7 ; Blount's Fragmenta Antiquitatis, 8, 80, 82,
85, 126.

' The Abbey of Fescamp was founded by Richard II. of Normandy,
called the Good. It was his favourite residence, and that of his successors,
including the Conqueror, on his visits to the continent. — Wace ; Nouvelle
Hist, de Normandie.

320 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

noble abbess Matilda. Educated in the convent of
Caen, she had early imbibed the prevailing doctrine of
devotional seclusion. She was highly accomplished,
and, being as deeply versed in secular learning as in the
legends of the monks, was not without ambition, and
adopted the strictest rules which the existing conven-
tual discipline would allow. She consequently succeeded
the venerable abbess in her office, after a period of
nearly fifteen years, discharged the sacred functions
with credit, and was distinguished for charity, piety,
and wisdom.

William was frequently compelled to revisit Nor-
mandy, to repress the unruly and intriguing disposition
of his great barons, who were continually plotting with
the neighbouring princes8 or with the French king.
Early again in 1076 he pursued the Earl of Norfolk into
Brittany, where he besieged him in the city of Dol. He
vowed with his customary oath not to quit the spot till
he had seized the person of the traitor, and chastised
all the abettors of his attempt. For once, however, the
king was compelled to break his impious vow. He had,
almost for the first time, formed a wrong estimate of
the power and activity of his enemies. The young
Duke, Alan Fergeant, in conjunction with the King of
France, joined the earl's party, and came to his relief
with a powerful army. Listening only to the dictates
of revenge, William continued to push the siege. A
long series of uninterrupted successes had taught him
to underrate the resources of his enemies. Passion
usurped the place of judgment ; and, at the eleventh
hour, being too weak to meet his new enemies, he was

8 Histoire de Normandie ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; W. Pict. ; W. of
Malms. ; Henry ; Tyrrell ; Lingard ; Hume.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 321

compelled to decamp, when on the point of success,
with the additional mortification of leaving all his tents
and baggage in the hands of his enemies. To a monarch
so devotedly fond of money and of glory, the loss of a
city's spoils, of the money-ransom of the earl's life, and
at least £30,000 sterling with his baggage, made up no
slight reverse — to say nothing of the Amazon countess's
philippics upon the occasion.

This sudden check appears to have operated favour-
ably upon all parties ; a peace was the result, to cement
which King William bestowed the hand of his daughter
Constance upon the Duke of Brittany. This union was
mutually advantageous, and much more politic than
attempting at all hazards to wreak his revenge. The
marriage rites were celebrated with great magnificence,
and the young bride carried with her a noble dower,
being no less than the lands of Chester, formerly in
possession of earl Edwin, who had been promised the
hand of one of the princess's sisters.9

In fact, King William appears to have been at length
wearied with a series of perpetually recurring wars, and
desirous of courting repose. That which he might
before have secured was now denied to him, and in a
manner which must have given redoubled poignancy to
his regrets. He had reduced his subjects to a hollow
peace ; he was no longer annoyed by his nobles, nor by
his neighbours; but a nearer and a more formidable
enemy sprung up in the bosom of his own family. He
found that his maxim " to divide and rule " was here
110 longer applicable. Division here was the " house
divided against itself;" and the bitter dissensions of his

9 W. of Malms. ; Sim. Dunelm ; Chron. Sax. ; Ord. Vit. 544 ; Nouv.
Hist, de Nor. ; Henry ; Tyrrell ; Lingard ; Hume.
VOL. I. Y

322 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

sons were aggravated by the weak and treacherous con-
duct of his consort. Favouritism,, at once the product
and the curse of prosperity, had struck its baneful roots
deep into the passions both of William and of his queen,
Robert, her first-born, was the idolised child of his mo-
ther; William II., afterwards called Rufus, had obtained
the confidence and good opinion of the king his father,
and, having received the honour of knighthood both
from the royal hand and that of an archbishop, accom-
panied the Conqueror in all his latter campaigns.

There can be little doubt that these family enmities,
the last and most fruitful source of misery, considerably
abridged the days of the queen, who died of a broken
heart, when in her fifty-second year. And it is equally
evident that the violent passions of William, gaining
additional force after that event, ultimately led to his
own sudden and premature decease.

Some allusion to the causes of these bitter feuds will
render the narrative both more intelligible and more
interesting. Not long after the conquest of England,
Robert had been declared heir to his father's continental
dominions. When of age, he was also to have posses-
sion of Maine during his father's life; and he now
claimed the performance of that promise. He had also
been united with queen Matilda in the regency of
Normandy, and, indulged by her to a fault, was per-
mitted to receive the flattery as well as the homage of
all ranks, and to assume the airs of an independent
sovereign.1

When called upon to render back the delegated
power, to show the duty of a son and the obedience of
a subject, he murmured and pressed his demands for the

1 Ord. Vit. ; W. of Malms. ; Annals of Normandy ; Robert of Gloucester.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 323

territory of Maine. William at first delayed, and next
pointedly refused to accede to his request. Many
painful discussions took place,, in which the queen
advocated the cause of her son, which, as regarded
Maine, was certainly just, though it afforded no excuse
to Robert for flying to arms. But to all representations
made in his son's behalf, William invariably gave the
brief reply : " I am not going to pull my clothes off
before I go to bed." Aware doubtless of Robert's
weakness and wretched incapacity, he very properly
refused to entrust him with a separate dominion, though
he held the lands of Maine in right of his son's mar-
riage-contract with the daughter of the last earl,
Herbert, who had died in her infancy.2 The royal
quarrel was naturally taken up by the junior branches
of the family, and, as is usual in such instances, became
the source of other disputes. His brothers William
and Henry seem to have been in the habit of ridiculing
the pretensions of the vain-minded heir, and an open
rupture among them was the inevitable consequence.

The king was spending part of the year 1076 in the
castle of L'Aigle, with his court. A love of practical
jesting,, especially with crowned heads, is always danger-
ous, unless perhaps, as customary in olden days, in the
licensed person of a fool. To the brothers of prince
Robert it had very nearly proved fatal; and certainly
the throwing a pail of filthy water upon the head of an
elder brother, as he is passing under the window, is no
slight cause of provocation,3 or undeserving of chastise-
ment. In an instant the castle was in an uproar;
Robert rushed with his drawn sword up the staircase
to inflict public vengeance upon the perpetrators of a

2 Chron. Sax. 183; Ord. Vit. 544; Henry; Lingard. 3 Ibid.

Y 2

324 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

wanton and public insult. Fortunately, the king him-
self heard the disturbance, and hastened to the spot;
for nothing but his presence could have averted some
fearful catastrophe :4 and the drawn swords of the father
and the son, as they nearly crossed each other, seemed
like the shadow of the encounter which soon afterwards
threatened to terminate in the supreme crime of parri-
cide itself.

Jealous of the partiality displayed by his father, the
wrath of Robert knew no bounds ; and, with the fatal
precipitancy which formed part of his character, he
resolved upon the impulse of the moment to rise in
rebellion against his own father and declare his inde-
pendence. The same evening he withdrew from the
court, attended by a number of the young nobility, and
even made an attempt to surprise the town of Rouen.
The king issued instant orders to seize Robert and his
companions wherever they might be found. Some were
taken ; but Robert, with a few other rebels, was received
into the castle of Hugh de Neufchatel. Numbers of
the Norman nobility soon joined the standard of Robert,
and from this period war may be said to have been
declared — a war which was carried on with the utmost
implacability for a space of almost three years.5

The young nobles of Maine and Anjou, all the wild
enterprising spirits burning for fresh adventure, the
lovers of pleasure and of spoil, nocked to the stand?
of the rebel prince, as their sires had done to that oi
William himself upon occasion of his memorable ini
sion of England. Far from regarding the bonds oi

4 W. of Malms. ; Ord. Vit. ; Walsingham ; W. Pict.
* M. Paris, 7 ; Ord. Vit. 545 ; R. Hoveden, 262 ; Hume ; Henry
Lingard.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, 325

duty or allegiance, they rushed to the field with cla-
morous joy, to attack the veteran hero in the scene of
his early fame — his beloved Normandy. But they soon
found to their cost that he was not yet so aged as to
brook either rival or master.6

The Norman historians attempt to exonerate queen
Matilda from the charge of having abetted her son in
his traitorous conduct, or supplied him with the means
of rebellion. The number of opposing contemporary
authorities, however, added to the extreme devotion she
always manifested to his interest, lead us to a different
conclusion ; though it is certain that, after the mischief
was done, she was extremely anxious, like other people,
to share the blame of it with her friends. Alarmed at
the dread appeal to arms, and the appalling picture of
hostile fields steeped in kindred blood, the distracted
wife and mother now began to feel some of the pains
and penalties attached to a royal state, and sought by
every effort to avert the impending storm.7

She threw herself at William's feet, and conjured him
to see his erring son ; and she then besought Robert, in
language the most passionate and pathetic, not to refuse
to listen to the terms intended to be proposed ; but to
hasten to her, and hear them. Robert consented to an
interview with his father, at which the queen was pre-
sent ; and a most painful one it must have been to each
of the unhappy parties. The feelings of the father were
lost in those of the monarch ; while Robert was as far
from entertaining the natural affection or respecting the
duty of a son. Aware that he was popular, he assumed
a bold tone, reminded William of his promises, and

6 M. Paris, 7 ; Ord. Vit. 545 ; R. Hoveden, 262 ; Hume ; Henry ;
Lingard. 1 Walsingham ; Hemingford ; Ord. Vit.

326 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

required to be put in possession both of Normandy and
Maine. The king sternly rebuked him, asserted his
unfitness to govern them, and reminding him of the fate
of Absalom, exhorted him not to listen to evil counsel-
lors, who would lure him to his ruin. Robert replied
that he had not come to hear homilies with which he
had long been sickened by his tutors, but to claim the
rights to which he was entitled. "I want a direct
answer. Are not these things my right ? " " So long
as I live," was the Conqueror's reply, " I will neither
give up my native dominion of Normandy, nor share it
with another ; for is it not written that ' every kingdom
divided against itself shall become desolate ? ' s I won
England by my own good sword ; the vicars of Christ
placed the diadem of its former kings upon my head,
and the sceptre in my hand, and I vow that not all the
world combined shall compel me to make over my power
to any one. Is it to be borne that he who is bound to
show the duty of a son should dare to become my rival
in my own realm ? " " Then if it is inconvenient for
you," was the scornful answer, " to keep your own pro-
mise, I will retire and seek justice from strangers ; for
here, as a subject, I will no longer remain." In vain the
wretched queen appealed to both with remonstrances
and with tears. The misguided prince rushed from their
presence, and, with a large body of adherents, among
whom were many of the disaffected nobles, set out for
Manders, and found a new scene for his treacherous
intrigues at the court of the earl, his uncle, surnamed
Le Frison.

The French king did all in his power to widen the
breach, and stir up the new confederacy against his for-

8 S. Dunelm ; Ord. Vit. ; P. Daniel.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 327

midable neighbour. Eobert was in no want of allies to
carry on the war. Such was the extent of the con-
spiracy as to enable him to draw large sums from Nor-
mandy itself, and both the great vassals and the queen
were supposed to hold secret correspondence with him
and to promote his views. William, aware that disaffec-
tion was fast spreading on all sides, lost no time in
sending for reinforcements from England, commanded
by the most trustworthy of his old leaders.9 The in-
surgents were already in the field; but he soon con-
vinced them that the lion whose talons they had
proposed to clip, had lost none of his former spirit, nor
was yet too aged to range the forest without a rival.
Driving the rebel army before him, he entered France,
and instantly laid siege to the castle of Gerberoy, which
Robert and his adherents had resolved to defend to the
last moment.

It was during the ensuing campaign that another
and still more painful scene toot place between the
Conqueror and his misguided consort, whose fatal fond-
ness for her eldest son received no check by his appear-
ance in arms against his own father. She had the
imprudence to supply him with large sums of money,
and, when these were exhausted, she had recourse to
her most precious robes and jewels, presents from her
deluded husband, to support his extravagant and violent
conduct.1

It was impossible that such infatuation should long
escape the observation of those around her. It reached
the ears of her colleague in the regency, and president

9 Chron. de Nor.'; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Kennett ; Henry ; Lingard.
1 W. of Malms. ; Ord. Vit. ; Walsinghaui ; W. Pict.

328 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

of the Norman council, the aged Roger de Beaumont,
whose fidelity to William permitted him not to withhold
it for a moment from his master's knowledge. We may
imagine the surprise and indignation of the monarch,
who had not only shown the most unlimited confidence
in her truth and honour, but placed her in the highest
dignity, the most responsible situation, next to his own,
which she could fill, as the regent of Normandy. It
was a cruel blow ; and for some time he refused to give
credit to the representations made to him by his old
and faithful minister. He was too soon undeceived by
the surprise of one of the agents employed in this
traitorous correspondence, named Sampson, who [bore
"the damning proofs" of the queen's guilt upon his
person.2

The usual pride and sternness of William's character
appear to have given way to his feelings of grief and,
regret upon this confirmation of his worst fears. The
lordly ambition of the sovereign was sunk for the mo-
ment in the bitter reflections of the injured husband
and the father. The very expressions of which he
made use show the depth and the intensity of the pain
he felt, without the slightest mitigation as in former
instances, of meditated vengeance and retaliation. On
the contrary, he seemed, for the first time, to bend
under the stroke, and to look upon it as on some pre-
destined evil for which there was no remedy. There
was also a mildness in his rebuke, foreign to his nature,
which must have struck his faithless queen to the heart.
" I find, madam/' he said, " that the maxim of a certain
philosopher is quite true, for my case, unfortunately,

2 W. of Malms. ; Ord. Vit. ; Walsingham ; W. Pict.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, 329

is too apt an illustration of it, not to confess its force : —
( Naufragium rerum est mulier malefida marito/ 3 — Such
a woman is the ruin of her own house ; and how have
I deserved it from you? Could you have met with
one more constant, more faithfully devoted in his at-
tachment to you ? Yet the wife of my bosom, she whom
I prized as my own soul, whom I placed at the head
of my government, the guardian of my treasures, of
all that was mine in the world, she has betrayed me,
and placed all she could command at the disposal of my
most cruel and unnatural enemy. She has succoured
him, enriched him upon the spoils of her husband, and
maintained his cause in secret with a zeal and cunning
that has made him formidable.4 Have I deserved it ?"
This calm and magnanimous appeal, instead of
awakening sentiments of contrition, which should have
thrown her at the feet of the offended father and the
betrayed monarch, seems only to have encouraged
Matilda to take advantage of it, and to make a bold and
artful defence. She cautiously avoided meeting these
direct charges, and so far from replying to his questions,
she put others in her turn, and had recourse to pleas of
maternal affection and to tears. " Alas, my lord, ought
you to be surprised that a mother's feelings for her
first-born son should take precedence of the sterner
dictates of justice, and harsher duties ? For I protest
to you, by the God above us, that, if my dear Robert
were dead, I would gladly pay the price of my blood to
restore him to life for a single instant. Nay, there is
no suffering or sacrifice I would not willingly undergo
for his sake ; dangers from which the natural weakness

3 " The woman who betrays her husband brings ruin upon his affairs.'*

4 Walsingham ; Ord. Vit. ; W. Pict.

330 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

of my sex would otherwise make me shrink with terror.
Could you yourself, my lord, be so harsh as to require
of me, surrounded with the comforts and the luxuries of
my state, that I should not succour to the utmost extent
of my power that dear son, when I knew that he was
pining in straits and difficulties, nay, perhaps, in abso-
lute suffering and privation. Far be such hardness
from a parent' s heart ; nor ought you, my lord, to think
of imposing such a task upon the tenderness of a
mother, whose sole fault is entire devotion to the hap-
piness and interests of our first-born son."

This evidence of extreme weakness and infatuation,
if sincere, was enough to have disarmed the anger of
the sternest tyrant ; such as William never was in his
private and domestic relations. It must have convinced
him that the case was hopeless ; that an affection so in-
dulged renders a woman no longer mistress of her
actions; and that all reasoning or argument must be
thrown away upon her. But, while he restrained his
passion from breaking forth, or inflicting punishment,
he is said 5 to have turned pale and trembled with ill-
dissembled rage upon thus hearing from her own lips
the extent of his consort' s folly and daring disregard of
all her paramount duties, by which he had been involved
in almost inextricable difficulties. He was not inclined
therefore to show any forbearance to the subordinate
actors in the plot, who, on receiving private intimation
from the queen, fled on all sides. Several of them took
sanctuary in the monasteries ; and the good abbots, at
Matilda's suggestion, found it necessary to have them
instantly shaven, shorn, and professed as monks, before
the vengeance of William could overtake them.

5 Ord. Vit. ; Walsingham.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 331

Meanwhile Robert had strengthened his positions,
and received such considerable accession of forces from
different points as enabled him to make fierce and
destructive sorties upon the besiegers. Many bold feats
of arms were performed before the walls ; and so great
were the number of challenges and knightly encounters,
in addition to the regular sallies, that the siege is de-
scribed as resembling a grand tournament rather than
a common field of battle.6 The Conqueror is known to
have taken singular delight in this species of warfare,
for the very obvious reason that he had never met with
his equal : and he now as sedulously courted the toil and
peril of the fight as he had done in earlier years, not
reflecting perhaps that great generals, like other men,
however fortunate in youth and manhood, may calculate
upon the rebuffs of fortune in keeping the field too long.
His army had already suffered a reverse; and his per-
sonal prowess was now for the first time doomed to re-
ceive a like check. It must have added poignancy to
his anger that such an indignity was reserved for him
from the hand of his own son. That son now confronted
his warlike father boldly in the open plain. His power-
ful garrison had grown into an army, notwithstanding
the efforts of William to prevent it; and a general
action took place near the castle, in the field of Archem-
braye. The Conqueror's army consisted chiefly of Eng-
lish, and he was accompanied by his son William, botli
no less eager than confident, and bent upon chastising
the presumption of the young heir. They knew that
he was chivalrously brave; but William had greatly
underrated his son's talents as a general.

6 Ord. Vit. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Hist, de Nor. ;
Walsingham.

332 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

The battle was maintained with great obstinacy on
both sides; Robert's army, however, composed of the
flower of the Norman nobility and knighthood, was
more select and experienced, and made several terrific
charges upon the English infantry. Each commander
displayed the utmost resources of his genius. Robert,
at the head of a large body of horse, having overthrown
the first ranks, and ridden through the bowmen, took
William's reserve, where he commanded in person, both
in flank and rear, and a desperate struggle ensued: it
was maintained hand to hand with equal prowess by
both parties.

But the main body of the English fought under every
disadvantage; and the veteran hero vainly attempted
to restore order among their broken ranks. Calling
aloud, he threw himself into the thick of the melee,
where he observed a knight, armed at all points, who
carried fresh confusion into his ranks wherever he
appeared. He wore his vizor down ; and, not recognis-
ing each other in the 'fierce affray, the father and the
son met in the desperate charge, and the unnatural
combat was fought hand to hand. Robert, at length,
after wounding his father through the sword arm,
unhorsed him ; 7 and, falling heavily, the Conqueror of
England ran serious risk of being trampled to death.

The rebellious son, however, was spared this consum-
mation of his crime. The voice of the King was recog-
nised, and Robert was among the first who hurried to
the assistance of his sire, the weight of whose armour
rendered him helpless, and raised him from the ground.
He had heard that angry voice too often to mistake it ;
and now, seized with a sudden pang of remorse, he

7 By some writers it is added that he also slew William's horse.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 333

threw himself at his parent's feet, and expressed his
sorrow for the accident. William, irritated at his dou-
ble defeat, and smarting with the pain of his wound,
instead of forgiving, or accepting the submission of his
son, pronounced a fearful malediction, and, hastily
remounting his horse, rejoined his discomfited troops.8

Fortunately, this painful event led to a suspension of
arms. Robert, deeply shocked, paused in his wicked
and infatuated career. William Rufus, as well as his
father, had been grievously wounded; and the more
moderate and well-disposed of both parties, alarmed at
the progress of this unnatural war, hastened to the
camp of William, eager to arrange the preliminaries
of peace. They found the King engaged in making
fresh preparations, bent upon chastising the insolence
of his son ; and it required all the tears and entreaties
of his unhappy consort to prevail on him to receive the
proifered submission of the conscience -stricken prince.9

From the moment of the dreadful encounter, which
had so nearly made her favourite son a parricide, the
guilt of which must in great part have rested upon her
head, the queen had bitterly reproached herself, and
her health rapidly declined. This was the strongest
appeal that could be made to the feelings of the Con-
queror, who, upon reflection also, could hardly have
been displeased at the pre-eminent valour and general-
ship of his eldest son ; qualities which naturally tended
to raise him in the opinion of so warlike a monarch.
William had always sufficient magnanimity to admire
heroism, though displayed against himself; more espe-
cially when it accorded with his own interests to pardon
and gain over the hero to his own views. This policy

8 M. Paris, 7 ; Ord. Vit. 572, 3, 9 R. Hoveden, 262.

334 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

he now adopted, while he had the additional satisfaction
of staunching the bitter tears shed by the repentant
wife and mother, who, by the tenderest expressions of
gratitude and maternal delight, gave the best assurance
of her future conduct to her liege-lord, by whom she
was still tenderly beloved.

The reflection, moreover, could not escape them, that
the same event which seemed, as by the hand of Provi-
dence, to arrest so fatal and unnatural a war in its mid
career, might, with greater probability, have converted
the father into the murderer of his first-born son ; — a
result that would not only have broken the heart of the
mother, but shorn the splendid feats of the Conqueror
of half their lustre, and rendered him justly odious
in the eyes of posterity. It was under no common
circumstances, therefore, that, having withdrawn his
troops from France, and occupied his former positions,
he wrote to Robert a letter with his own hand, accom-
panied by one from the queen, both expressive of their
wishes for a perfect reconciliation, and despatched it by
a special and confidential messenger. The King invited
him to repair without delay to Rouen, where he might
rely upon a full and free pardon and a cordial welcome
from the queen and from himself. He was assured
that he might count upon everything being done for
him, which the affection of a father could concede con-
sistently with his duty as a monarch.1

Robert, whose bosom was torn by contending emo-
tions, was highly delighted at receiving these assurances
from the hand of the King. Though passionate and
resentful, he was warm-hearted, generous, and ever
open to the first offers of reconciliation. Throwing
1 Ord. Vit. ; Prevost ; Henderson ; R. Hoveden ; Hayward.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 335

himself with perfect confidence upon the honour and
good-feeling of his father, he instantly set out, with
only three attendants, for Rouen, where he was received
with the most gratifying marks of affection, as well as
esteem, both by his parents and by his brothers, the
last of whom regarded him with far more respect since
the occurrence of the battle of Arehimbraye. There is
no doubt that, had he possessed judgment equal to the
ardour of his feelings, and known how to take advan-
tage of his present position, history would have recorded
another tale of his future fortunes.

But, with many amiable and lofty qualities, Robert
had no stedfastness of purpose, and was liable to the most
dangerous influences, both from his natural fickleness
and the designs of those around him. His father saw
his character clearly, when he declared that he was a
foolish knave who must be well whipt by Fortune before
he was brought to a due sense of his errors.2 With this
knowledge of his son's weakness and virtues, William
was now induced to attempt to reclaim him, and to
reconcile him with his brothers, by adopting less harsh
measures, and placing him in a situation due to his rank,
and in which he might distinguish himself. This he
had soon an opportunity of doing, upon being recalled
to England, in 1078, by serious disturbances in the
North and a fresh invasion of the Scots. Instead of
re-investing him and his mother with the regency of
Normandy, he wisely took him, along with his family,
to the English court. Having summoned a military
council, it was concluded that Robert should be placed
at the head of an army destined to oppose king Mal-
colm on the borders, and retaliate iipon him the

2 Ord. Vit. ; Henderson ; Prevost ; Walsingham.

336 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

depredations he had committed upon the inhabitants.3
Walcher, Bishop of Durham and Earl of Northumber-
land, had been also cruelly slain with his attendants at
Gateshead,4 by the adherents of Leolf, an English
noble, who had been previously assassinated by two of
the bishop's favourites.5

It was in the course of this expedition, which, owing
to the inferiority of his force, added little to Robert's
reputation, that he built, by direction of his father, a
strong castle near the spot where the bishop was killed.
This received the name of New Castle, and was the
origin of our great modern town of that name, as well
as the model of other new castles and new towns in
various parts of the country, which still retain the
designations bestowed upon their old Norman neigh-
bours, like that upon the Tyne.6

The formidable attitude assumed by the King led
Malcolm to offer overtures of peace, which were
accepted. Thus, by his prompt and active measures,
William soon restored tranquillity throughout his
dominions, as he had done in his own family. In con-
junction with his queen and some of the most learned
and enlightened prelates of his time, he had paid great
attention to the progress of architecture and the con-
struction of many public works, in addition to the royal
residences at Westminster, Windsor, the Tower, Ber-
mondsey, Berkhamstead, and the great abbeys of Eng-
land, founded upon the model of those in Normandy.7

3 R. Hoveden, 262. 4 Chron. Sax. 184.

5 Named Leothwin and Gillebert ; S. Dunelm, col. 48.

6 R. Hoveden, 263.

7 A great number of religious houses were also founded in Normandy
by the old English nobility.— Ducarel, Nor. Antiq.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 337

Other great projects connected with the naval and
military power of England were also matured ; and it
was already becoming evident that the character, laws,
and institutions of the ascendant party, though in the
act of exercising conquest and oppression, would at no
distant period be merged in those of the subjugated
nation. The subsequent wars between England and Nor-
mandy bore testimony to this truth, one so hopeful and
cheering to the destiny of vanquished countries, in
which a superior intellectual and moral power will
invariably at last assert its just pre-eminence.

It was only for a short period that, while the forms of
liberty and the letter of the Anglo-Saxon laws con-
tinued in force, a virtual despotism was established.
We are told, for instance, that the Witt enage mote, from
its origin and nature, had always decided on peace and
war. But when its members became vassals of the
Crown, their military service was due to their lord when-
ever required ; and the justice or wisdom of the contest
was no longer any part of their concern. The im-
portant prerogative of declaring peace and war was
thus at once transferred to the Crown, and with the
Crown it has ever since remained.8

According to the charter of William, it would appear9
as if his object was to separate the ecclesiastical laws
from the secular courts. But he did not exclude the
ecclesiastical judge from secular jurisdiction. On the
contrary, he prohibited the sheriff from calling any into
judgment sinejustitid Episcopi, without the authority of

8 Smythe, Lecture v. 154, 5.

9 Duchesne ; Hist. Nor. Scrip. ; Liber Ruber Scaccarii ; which con-
tains many valuable treatises on the infeudatories miUtum, and the certifi-
cates returned by all the prelates and barons of England.

VOL. I. Z

338 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

the episcopal judge. Notwithstanding the separation
of the two courts, the interposition of the ecclesiastical
judge in secular causes was so far from, being interdicted
that, unless he were present, the actual proceedings
would be without the sanction of the law. In fact,
therefore, the separation of the ecclesiastical judge was
rather the result of the subsequent papal prohibitions,
restraining ecclesiastics from interfering in the temporal
judicatures.1

In some of the Anglo- Saxon laws, as amended by
William, a marked distinction is made between the
Normans and the English in the award of strict justice.
Thus if a Frenchman accused an Englishman of per-
jury, homicide, or other capital offence, the latter was
to acquit himself by duel, with the privilege of buying a
champion, or if inferior, by fire ordeal ; but if an English-
man accused a Frenchman, and would prove it by
judgment or duel, the law willed that the Frenchman
should acquit himself by oath only, and not by duel or fire.2

Nor was this all. Though the inferior courts of
justice continued the exercise of their functions with
little alteration, the separation of the spiritual from the
temporal power, which William introduced in the county
courts, was a serious evil. The reputation of these
tribunals thus declining, their business was usurped by
the King's justiciaries, and the practitioners of the Aula
Regis, being Norman ecclesiastics, introduced that spirit
of chicane, subtlety, and delay, which in a great measure
is still the reproach of English law, especially in what are
called courts of equity.3 This may perhaps bring to the

1 Wilkins, Ang. Sax. Laws, 219, et seq.

2 Ibid. 231 ; Quarterly Review ; Gent. Magazine.

3 Vestigia Ang. i. 224.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 339

reader's mind the amusing verses of our Cowper, when,
speaking of England in these early days, in the first
part of his " Expostulation," he presents so graphic a
picture of the condition of the people : — 4

" Then priests with bulls, and briefs, and shaven crowns,
And griping fists, and unrelenting frowns,
Legates and delegates, with powers from hell,
Though heavenly in pretension, fleec'd thee well.
And to this hour, to keep it fresh in mind,
Some twigs of the old scourge are left behind — " 5

which twigs, the poet slily adds, in a note, "may
be found at Doctors' Commons ; " and it might be again
rejoined, not there only.

It is wonderful how, under such a system, the English
character and customs should have successfully resisted
the tide of Norman innovation of every kind, and even
thrown it back upon the victors, till their laws became
assimilated, and their institutions merged in those of
the conquered. This political phenomenon, however,
is well explained in a work full of profound historic
truths, of grand, ennobling views, and sentiments as
beautiful as they are benevolent ; 6 establishing at the
same time the heart-cheering fact, that out of apparent
evils are evolved new elements of regeneration and final
good. " It is the general spirit and habits of thinking/*
says this philosophic historian, " in a community that
are all in all. Charters, and statutes, and judges, and
courts of law, are of no avail for perpetuating a consti-
tution, or even for securing the regular administration

4 Among the minor grievances of William's reign, was the introduction
of the Jews, to whom the King assigned a place to inhabit and occupy. —
Vest. Ang. 5 Vol. i. " Expostulation."

6 Smythe, Lectures on Modern History, lecture v., England.

z 2

340 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

of its blessings from time to time, if a vital principle
does not animate the mass, and if there be not sufficient
intelligence and spirit in the community to be anxious
about its own happiness and dignity, its laws and
government, and those provisions and forms in both
which are favourable to its liberties." 7

This was precisely the animating principle which
gave birth to that unconquerable spirit of passive re-
sistance, which first laid the foundations and still pre-
serves entire the structure of our English liberties. It
was this which now repelled the repeated efforts of Wil-
liam so to modify the Anglo-Saxon laws and institutes
as to render them compatible with the continental
despotism, imposed so heavily upon the masses of every
nation, in the form of the new feudal government.

We must not at the same time be unjust to the Con-
queror's merits as a firm, intrepid ruler, who, by his
strict police and municipal regulations, Had the founda-
tion of internal order, and by his naval and military
armaments freed England from the invasions 8 which
had so long ravaged her richest provinces, and rendered
her independent of the aid of foreign nations. Not a
few " also of the most obnoxious laws which bore his
name were really of Anglo-Saxon growth and origin.9

7 Smythe, Lectures on Modern History, lecture v., England.

8 Alison ; Brodie ; Hallam ; Lingard.

9 A manuscript, formerly belonging to Archbishop Parker, and after-
wards to Coke, and which preserves the greater part of the text of the
laws repeated in Ingulphus, has recently been discovered among the lite-
rary remains at Holkham, and from this last-mentioned document the
following extracts have been made : — " Cez sunt les leis et les custumes
que li reis Will grantad al pople de Engleterre apres le cunquest de la
terre ; iceles meimes que li reis Edward sun cusin tint"'devant lui.
Ceo est a saver : — Pais a seiut Jglise ; de quel forfeit que horn fet oust,

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 34-1

It was thus with regard to the feudal burdens alleged
to have been imposed by him upon the clergy. It is
well known that under the Saxon government church
lands were bound to furnish their contingent of troops,
unless exempted by special charter. That William was
not the author of this grievance, as it was loudly pro-
claimed,1 the privilege granted by Edgar to the monks
of Winchester is sufficient proof. So far were the Saxon
ecclesiastics from being unconcerned spectators of their
country's wars, that many of their clergy took up
arms in its defence, and perished in battle against its
enemies.2

In a practical point of view, doubtless, whatever was
the acknowledged theory of the old Anglo-Saxon laws,
all the consequences usually attendant upon a military
conquest were for a time experienced. The vast and
complicated chain of feudalism was rivetted upon the

e il poust venir a seint Iglise, oust pais de vie et de membre. E si
aucuns meist mein en celui Id la mere Iglise requereit si ceo fust u evesque
u abeie, u iglise de religiun, rendist ceo qu'il aureit pris e cent souz le
forfeit. E de mere iglise de parosse xx souz, et de chapele x souz. E
ki enfreint pais le Rei, en Merchene, lahe cent souz les amendes. Autresi
de hemfore e de agwait purpense."

Such, if we can believe Ingulphus, are the laws of the Conqueror, in
the very idiom in which they were promulgated, and according to the
copy brought by him from London. That the substance of the statute is
authentic may be admitted. But the employment of the French language,
contrary to the usage and practice of the eleventh century, is calculated to
awaken suspicion. We cannot refer the French text of the laws to any
higher period than the early part of the reign of Henry III., which also
appears to be the era of the Holkham manuscript. (See Quarterly Re-
view, xxxiv. 261.)

These laws were written in the dialect of the Roman Walloon, and
offer the most ancient specimen of it. There is also the book of Brut and
Wace's antique romance of Hollo, called Roman de Rou.

1 M. Paris. 2 Eadmer, Chron. Sax.

342 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

necks of the people ; its energies were gone, its liberties
were to be re-conquered. With the aid of Norman
jurisprudence, a sanguinary criminal code, which to a
recent date disgraced our statutes, was then promulgated,
and paved the way for the exercise of a despotic power
bv succeeding sovereigns over the lives both of the
nobles and of the people; a power often as cruelly
wreaked upon the members of their own families, even
upon their wives and children. In civil judicature,
also, the Norman forms, processes, and technicalities
appear to have laid a broad foundation for the tyranny
of the ecclesiastical courts,3 and for the interminable
litigations of a modern court of Chancery. It must be
admitted, also, that William, without yielding to its
supremacy, certainly augmented the papal authority in
England, leaving to his successors a legacy of strife,
which brought blood upon the head of the first Plan-
tagenet, compelling him to do penance, as a lowly and
repentant sinner, at the shrine of his former favourite,
Thomas a Becket. His policy in so far tended to raise
the ecclesiastical power, at the expense both of the
sovereign and the people, the latter of whom were sub-
jected to a spiritual thraldom, which operated as a tax
far more serious than that of the Peter-pence ; though

" 3 The early Saxon longs had resisted the encroachments of Rome more
successfully than their Norman successors. In a letter from Boniface,
Archbishop of Mentz, to Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, he exhorts
« his good brother to prevent pilgrimage to Rome ; especially of the
English ladies, for that it frequently had happened that they lost by the
way what they could never again recover — their virtue."

It is aptly remarked that these so called " ladies " perhaps counted
upon a plenary remission of their sins, when they arrived at their jour-
ney's end, and conceived that there could be no great harm in adding a
little to the number. — Vestigia Ang. i. 94.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

it was by no means regarded as so heinous an offence as
his patronage of the Jews.4

It is a singular fact' that, in all the risings of the
nobles and the people during the Conqueror's reign,
the avowed object was the restoration of the people's
charter — as the great bulwark of their liberties, through
the medium of a virtual representative system- — such as
was supposed to have existed under their Anglo-Saxon
kings, and formed the only guarantee for the national
rights and privileges. It was in truth an effort to
return to first principles, to the simple and free system
of self-government, or the more perfect representation
of all, as established in the old Germanic confedera-
tions, and first transplanted by the Saxons into Eng-
land.

Nor was it without examples, both in sacred and
profane history, on which to found its claims to general
national support. The councils of Nice and Antioch
had exhibited perfect models of a universal system of
representation.5

Thus, to the other blessings which civilisation owes
to Christianity, is to be added the support of those
inestimable advantages which have flowed from the
establishment of the representative system.6 Is it sur-
prising, then, that nobles and people should so soon
have learned to unite, and toiled so hard to oppose a
military system of centralisation and irresponsibility,
sought to be established by the Conqueror, as the
supreme head both of the Church and the State ? It
was this union which, as early as William's reign,

4 Vestigia Ang. i. 225.

5 Alison, Introduction to Modern Hist, of Europe, vol. i. p. 46 ; Sal-
vandy, Histoire de la Pologne. 6 Ibid.

3-14 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

offered the sole alleviation of the grinding feudal op-
pression, the deep-seated and wide-spread evils of the
Conquest.7

It is evident that, from the year 1078 almost to the
close of his reign, his uniform aim was to concentrate
the power of the government, by loading the great
baronial fiefs with money-tax and military service. The
great barons sought compensation by re-granting por-
tions of land so burdened to their knights, and so on
to the knights' vassals. The same services, with in-
creased taxes, were required, under heavier penalties,
to be rendered in peace and in war, in proportion to
the nearer approach to the termination of the feudal
chain.

In addition to his crown lands, the king now held
upwards of seven hundred chief baronies, vassals of the
Crown, and sixty thousand in knight fee, or vassals of
the great lords. No Englishmen, however, stood in the
first class, esteeming themselves fortunate, indeed, to
rank in the second, too happy to have the protection of
some great Norman chief, and to be permitted to
strengthen the dominion of William, upon what he
esteemed that firm and immovable basis.8

But no efforts could extend a systematic despotism
over the hearts of the old English yeomen,9 who soon

" Mazeres ; Lyttleton ; Sir W. Temple ; Russel ; Mackintosh ; Lin-
gard ; Henry.

8 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Prevost ; Henderson ;
Henry ; Mackintosh ; Lingard ; Russel.

9 One defeat could not extinguish the recollection of a hundred victories.
Habits, the growth of ages, survived the oppression of transient sove-
reigns. The power of the Normans prevented them from rising into the
higher stations in society ; the slaves already filled the lowest ranks of
life. Between the two they formed a sturdy and powerful body, which

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 345

began to clamour for their former laws and usages, be-
coming, from a combination of trying circumstances,
only more resolute and united. Formidable ranks of
young rising freemen, growing up under the sheltering
wing of a feudal aristocracy, soon returned the boon by
enabling their lords to restrain the headlong passions
and impetuosity of the kings.1 These boldly opened
the way to the rights of the middle classes, fast spring-
ing into life from England's ocean towns, as if at the
magic spell of free trade, and a commercial intercourse
unfettered as the winds that bore it.2

With the same object of concentrating all state influ-
ence, honours, and dignities, as far as possible, in the
Crown, King William summoned another council to
confirm his former decrees, and to render the ecclesias-
tical state, its powers, and constitution, more com-
pletely subject to the existing feudal laws. The English
clergy, and much more the great prelates, were become
almost extinct, or occupied the most subordinate offices.
All the great sees and church preferments of every kind
had been lavished upon Normans or other foreigners.
Soon, even the new Norman clergy took the alarm ; for
they were compelled to show their titles — an admirable
expedient for raising an ecclesiastical tax. They were
again called upon to furnish military service, or to pay

neither withered in the contests of feudal power nor perished in the
obscurity of ignoble bondage. It is from this cause that the yeomanry
of England took their rise. — Alison ; Hist, of Europe, i. 18.

1 Hallam ; Smythe ; Brodie ; Alison ; Russel.

2 In the words of the able and noble-hearted author of the Lectures on
Modern History, " it is the spirit of the people that is all in all. When
driven from thrones and altars, truth, freedom, and religion still find a
sanctuary in the bosom of the lowliest of God's people."

346 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

the penalty of contumacy, like their lay-brethren of
corresponding rank.3

William's subjugation of the clergy was at length
complete ; but he had still to battle for the right of
investitures, and to deny, if possible without offending,
the supremacy of the Pope. The Norman prelates
inveighed bitterly against what they termed his inno-
vations, only another name for absolute servitude, and
like "the groans of the Britons appealing to the
Romans," they had recourse with mingled tears and
revilings to the justice of his Holiness in behalf of their
old privileges. The monarch, however, once a submis-
sive suitor, had now less occasion to show the same
deference and respect : he no longer made costly pre-
sents, but quietly persevered in exercising his royal
prerogative and replenishing his exchequer. With a
powerful army and police at his beck, and a vassal aris-
tocracy wholly depending upon his will, he awed super-
stition itself into silence, and met the complaints of his
friend the primate and Archbishop of Canterbuy with
perfect serenity and sang-froid. Nay, he even expressed
pleasure at the arrival of the Papal legate, the Bishop
of Sion, the first ever seen in England. With the
adroitness of a consummate politician, he gave him a
hearty welcome to his court, and contrived to turn a
circumstance that might have told against him to the
most happy account.

With a show of apparent awe and submission to the
representative of the vicegerent of Heaven, William also
took care to summon a council at Winchester, where,
availing himself of the countenance of the legate, he

3 Henry ; Hume ; Lingard.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 347

finally degraded Stigand from his rank, conferring his
shorn honours upon his old friend and minister Lan-
franc, abbot of St. Stephen at Caen. Other obnoxious
prelates, including all those who had complained to the
Pope, were at the same time removed. So that, while
openly deferring to the Papal court, which had already
begun to exercise an ascendency in England, not easily
shaken off, William made use of it in subjecting his
clergy more completely to his arbitrary rule, and plac-
ing them wholly upon a level with the rest of his sub-
jects. Having proceeded so far, his next royal edict
forbade the recognition of the sovereign pontiff by any
party not first authorised by himself. He required
that in all cases the decisions of the different councils
should be submitted to his examination, and derive
their authority only from his special ratification of
them.

It was not in the power of Rome to issue censures or
fulminations of any kind in his dominions till they had
received the royal sanction. By assuming this high
position, becoming a supreme pontiff and absolute ruler,
rather than a limited monarch, William's wary conduct
proved that he could have reflected as great splendour
upon the Papal chair as upon the throne. For while
he held both the ecclesiastical and civil states subject
to his royal prerogative, his policy tended to keep them
distinct, and to draw that distinction wider.4

The same efforts to subject the Anglo-Saxon church,
its laws and customs, to his more arbitrary Norman rule,
were made by all the subordinate agents of William's
power. This spirit of innovation gave rise to many

4 Mazeres ; Henry ; Lingard ; Brodie ; Hist, de Nor. ; Nouvelle
Hist, de Nor. ; Hallam ; Mackintosh.

348 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

serious and some ludicrous conflicts between the Eng-
lish monks and their Norman superiors, who had dis-
placed the heads of the Anglo-Saxon abbeys and
monasteries. Often was the battle of the respective
church privileges and special discipline fought upon holy
ground, with all the obstinacy and more than the acri-
mony of the field of Hastings itself. An occurrence
which took place at Glastonbury 5 showed how far the
genius of discord must have inspired the councils of the
Anglo-Norman church, and made "the lord of misrule"
the only lord paramount throughout the great church
fiefs, for such they really were, from the chief sees to the
most humble foundations in the land.

The frequent conflicts of the monks, towards the close
of William's reign, might have furnished the satiric
wits of some Norman Pope or Boileau with an admirable
subject for his pen, in which the bold abbot Thurstan
might have figured with all the eclat of a Belinda, or
the "Prior's desk" itself. William's doughty abbot
seems to have been very difficult to please ; for we are
told that the monks meant well to him, beseeching him
that he would govern them rightly, and love them, and
that they would be faithful and obedient in return to him.
The abbot, however, would hear nothing of this, but
" evil-entreated them, and threatened them worse." So
one day the abbot went into the chapter-house, and
inveighed against the monks sharply. Nay, he at-
tempted to mislead them in the service by teaching
them a new-fangled chant brought from Fescamp in
Normandy, instead of that to which they had been
accustomed, and which is called the Gregorian chant.
Afterwards he sent some laymen, and they came full

5 A.D. 1083 ; Chron. Sax. 286.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 349

armed into the chapter-house right upon the monks.
Then were the monks very much afraid 6 of them, and
wist not what they were to do. But they shot forward,
and some ran into the church and locked the doors as
fast as possible behind them. Still their persecutors
held them in chase ; broke into the minster, and resolved
to drag them out, so that they durst not stir nor issue
forth. A rueful thing happened that same day. The
Frenchmen burst into the choir and hurled their wea-
pons towards the altar, where the monks were. Nay,
some of the knights went upon the upper floor and shot
their arrows downward incessantly towards the sanc-
tuary, so that on the crucifix that stood above the altar
they stuck many arrows. There the wretched monks
lay about the altar, and some crept under and earnestly
called upon God, imploring his mercy, since they could
not obtain any at the hands of man. What can we
say, but that they continued to shoot their arrows,
whilst the others broke down the doors, and came in,
and slew some of the monks and wounded many more
therein. So that soon the blood came from the altar
upon the steps, and from the steps on the floor. Three
there were slain to death, and eighteen wounded at the
least.7

Nor was this summary mode of introducing Norman
customs and usages confined to the heads of the clergy.
William's great vassals and other lay lords were as much
dreaded by the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts.
The English clergy, indeed, drew up a form of prayer

6 Literally, « afeard of them ;" terrified by their somewhat sharp mode
of conversion to the new-fangled church. " Afea:d"' occurs frequently
in Shakspeare ; « afraid," I believe, only once.

7 William I. Chron. Sax. ; Ingram's Tran. p, 286.

350 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

for the people to offer up every evening when they shut
their doors and windows, that they might be preserved
during the night from the visitation of the Normans.8

This inveterate hostility between the two people con-
tinued for upwards of a century after the Conquest.
The two languages were kept almost as distinct, from
the same cause ; and at that period the Anglo-Saxon,
spoken by the bulk of the people, had borrowed few, if
any, terms from the Norman-French of the conquerors.
By slow degrees this enmity declined; succeeding
generations began to converse more freely, and the
language of the great majority of the people became the
prevailing tongue of the whole, with only a slight tinc-
ture of the language of the intruders.9

We are told that the people of Normandy and Flan-
ders who followed the Conqueror into England were
remarkable for the elegance of their manners and the
nobleness of their persons.1 They were also extremely
fond of display, a disposition which prompted them to
pay great attention to their dress, and especially to their
head-dress. The long curled hair was more particularly
inveighed against by the clergy.2 These, compelled to
adopt the clerical tonsure, seem to have been extremely
envious of the ornament they had lost, and railed against
the nobles and courtiers who boasted its possession. They
now denounced it as one of the most heinous of crimes,
and a most certain mark of a state of reprobation. But,
this not being sufficient, the archbishop himself came to
their aid ; and it must have been highly amusing to a
Norman monarch, who had contrived to evade the papal

s M. Paris, Vit. Abbat, 29. col. 1 9 Henry, iii. 582.

1 W. of Malms. 1. v. 98, col. 1 ; Henry, iii. 583.

2 Eadmer, Ord. Vit. 682.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 351

censures, to hear a sentence of excommunication, hurled
against the refractory nobles and all who dared to sport
their love-locks ; yet all ranks had as great an aversion
to long beards as they had a fondness for long hair.
With the Normans to allow the beard to grow was an
indication of the most vulgar manners, or the most piti-
able misery.3 Nor did they cause only themselves to be
shaved, but they were the cause of shaving in others,
whenever they had an opportunity, or authority for
employing the razor. The example was lost upon the
English, and it is mentioned as an act of tyranny in
William that he compelled them to follow it, not even,
permitting them to retain their beloved whiskers 011 the
upper lip.4 This indignity to their beards was so
resented by many that they chose rather to abandon their
country than to consent to so cruel a sacrifice.5

The costume of the Normans, about the time of the
Conquest and for some time afterwards, was simple and
graceful. Soon, however, it began to degenerate into
a certain fastidious and fantastic foppishness, peculiar,
perhaps, to men who have just succeeded to an unex-
pected fortune ; like that of Robert the Magnificent,
when at the imperial feast, the dress of the nobles
and their knights was excessively rich ; te gemmed and
jewelled" in proportion to the spirit as well as the rank
and office of the party. The caps and bonnets for the
head, the shirts, doublets, and cloaks, partook of the
same costliness, while special richness was bestowed
upon the hose and shoes, on which were lavished all
the colours to be seen in the rainbow. The same gaudy
set-off was applied to the rest of their apparel, so that
ladies' caps and men's bonnets partook of the same

3 Ord. Vit. 847. 4 M. Paris, Vit. Abbat, 29. 5 Ibid.

352 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

variety, the latter being made chiefly of furs or cloth of
different colours.6 The bonnets of kings, earls, and
barons, richly emblazoned with diamonds and precious
stones/ produced a splendid effect amidst the gorgeous-
ness of their religious solemnities and their public spec-
tacles. But shirts made of fine linen were then a
comparative luxury, confined to persons of rank and
fortune. The doublets were worn next to these shirts,
made exactly to fit the shape, and exhibiting a fine
field for fashionable caprice, in regard to style, size, and
colour, according to the ever " varying Cynthia of the
minute." While the surcoats of royalty almost swept
the feet, those of the inferior orders reached scarcely
half the way, so as not to impede them in their manual
or professional labours.8

The robe or mantle was another essential part of the
Anglo-Norman costume. That worn by rnonarchs was
made of the finest cloth, embroidered with gold, and
lined with the most costly furs. Sometimes it was the
fashion to sweep the ground with it ; at others it was so
short as to take the name of courte mantle, from which
no less a potentate than Henry II. borrowed his sur-
name.

In the time of the Conqueror and his immediate de-
scendants, it was considered most fashionable to sweep
the ground with their long cloaks and gowns, the full,
wide sleeves of which covered their hands, so that tliey
could neither walk nor do anything else with freedom.9
The curved, high pointed shoes were as parti- coloured

6 The Jews were obliged to wear square caps, to distinguish them from
their more favoured Christian fellow-subjects. Du Cange, Gloss, t. viii.
483. 7 Strutt, View of Manners, Customs, &c. Plates 42-4-9.

8 Ibid. 9 Ord. Vit. 612

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 353

as the rest, and the hose or stockings, like those of
Malvolio, were worn with a brilliancy and grace ad-
dressed to the fancy of some favourite of the other sex.
William B/ufus said that he disdained to wear a pair of
stockings that should cost less than about ten pounds
of our English money.1

We need not enlarge upon the costume of the ladies,
either of, or out of the court, that having been with
admirable felicity already done.2 But we may observe,
that the Anglo-Normans were extremely delicate, not
to say dainty, in the choice and preparation of their
food. It is no fanciful theory to suggest that the art
of cookery was improved by the feudal tenures, for we
are inclined to conclude, from many savoury data, that
such was actually the gratifying fact. Coeval with the
palmiest state of chivalry was the grand office of cook
in all distinguished families. So highly was it esti-
mated that it became hereditary, each successor receiv-
ing, at the hands of royalty or aristocracy, the best
education and the most enlightened views of the culinary
art, so as to embrace in the least compass the greatest
possible degree of piquant pleasure, combined with the
most costly and magnificent display.3 A pension, and
also lands, being annexed to the office, no wonder that
fathers carefully instructed their children in the more
abstruse and refined secrets of so attractive an occupa-
tion, in which, though many were destined to it from
their birth,4 few knew how to attain pre-eminent success
— a result which unhappily led to the question of their

1 W. of Malms. 69 ; Henry, iii. 584-6.

2 The Queens of England, by Agnes Strickland, &c.

3 Henry, iii. 587. 4 Fleta, 1. ii. c. 75.
VOL. I. A A

354 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

right of succession, and finally, to the more serious
innovation of the office being made elective.

We even meet with estates held in those good old
times by the tenure of dressing one particular dish as
it ought to be dressed.5 The Normans, indeed, had the
more reason to cultivate this liberal but difficult art,
because they had generally only two meals a day, dinner
and supper ; and English sea-faring men " being allowed
strong drinks of any kind at the ship's expense, were
to have only one meal a day." Norman sailors, how-
ever, owing to their receiving only water as the ship's
allowance,6 were permitted to have two meals.

It was the ambition, indeed, of Robert, Earl of
Millent, to prevail upon the nobles and gentry to allow
of only one stated meal a day in their families.7 Of
this cruel innovation upon the genius and habits of
Englishmen, Henry of Huntingdon complains very
feelingly, as if it proceeded from " an accursed love of
gain, a most vile and contemptible study of economy,
rather than any regard to temperance, as that meddling
lord and his supporters made pretence." No new
church rate or Factories Bill could have been worse
received by the English. Nobles and knights all
obstinately adhered to the old custom of two and even
three meals per diem, as their inalienable right from
the days of King Alfred, guaranteed to them by Ed-
ward the Confessor, and to be surrendered only with
the loss of appetite and their lives.

The Conqueror, imbibing, doubtless, a portion of the

5 Blount's Fragmenta Antiqua, i.

6 Godolphm's View of the Admiral. Juris. 117.

7 W. of Malms, ix. col. 2 ;f Fleta, ibid. ; JBlount.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 355

same heroic spirit, sent numerous agents into the
different countries of the world to collect the rarest
dishes for his table. By such means, we are told, ' f that
this island, which is naturally productive of plenty and
variety of provisions, was overflowed with everything
that could inflame a luxurious appetite."8 At one of
these entertainments, which was kept up from three
o' clock until midnight, delicacies were served up which
had been brought from nearly all the countries of the
South and East.9

The festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide,
in which the King spent a considerable portion of his
revenues, assisted in diffusing a taste for profuse
habits, and it was natural for the haughty baron to
imitate, in his own castle, the sumptuous banquets
which he had seen in the palace of his lord paramount.
The wealthy clergy, both secular and regular, kept ex-
cellent tables ; and it was not long before the monks of
St. Swithin's made a formal complaint against their
abbot for taking away three of their thirteen dishes
allowed every day at dinner.1 Those of Canterbury had
seventeen, besides a dessert, and all kinds of spiceries
and sauces to give a zest to their different courses.2

Persons of high rank and good fortunes possessed a
great variety of wines as well as of viands, a peculiarity
which their descendants have contrived to retain up to
the present day. Besides liqueurs of different kinds,
they had pigment, morat, mead, hypocras, claret/ cider,
perry, and goo*d ale. They refined upon the claret,

8 John of Salisbury, 553. 9 Ibid. 553.

1 Giraldus Cambrensis, 1. ii. c. 5.

2 Ibid. 505. — Thomas a Becket is said to have paid about £75 of our
money for a single dish of eels. — W. Stephen, Vita St. Thomae, 21.

5 A wine sweetened with honey,

A A 2

356 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

also, by clarifying it and adding spices, being decided
enemies to the cold-water system.

The Anglo-Normans of William's age piqued them-
selves less upon being considered men of business or
men of letters than men of leisure. Independent of
military duties they had considerable time upon their
hands. They were proportionally fond of diversions,—
martial, rural, theatrical, and domestic.

It was not long before tournaments became the fa-
vourite resource during the intervals of war ; the church
mysteries and exhibitions of the Mimes and Mummers
amused the evenings, while trial by battle, ordeal appeals,
steeple-races, and boar and stag hunting served to di-
versify the character of their pursuits. William latterly
devoted himself to them with redoubled earnestness,
as the extent of his park inclosures increased, and they
perhaps formed the best safety-valve, among his great
barons, for the escape of treason and ennui.

Thus princes and lords indulged their combative pro-
pensities without risk, when not employed in their
more professed occupation of shedding human blood.
William, though more warlike than polished and re-
fined, maintained a court almost the pink of splendour,
and he was as fond of promoting magnificent display,
as of rewarding dexterity and skill in arms. The
king's military assemblies, in fact, were grand public
exhibitions, in the reviews and processions of which
the feudal heroism of the land eagerly participated,6 in-
tent on monopolising at once the smiles of the fair and
the admiration of the spectators. These mimic feats of
war came into fashion some time before the Conquest,

' Du Cange, Gloss, voc. torneamentum ; Mem. sur la Cheval. i. 27,
180,182; ii. 11,263.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 357

but not in England till considerably later, notwithstand-
ing the example of M. de Pruilli, the renowned in-
ventor of the tournament, sham fights, and challenges
of every kind.7 They were discouraged by the Anglo-
Saxons, on account of the immense expense with which
they were attended, though the efforts of the Norman
kings to naturalise them at length prevailed.

In great cities, particularly London, it was a favourite
Norman sport to bait wild boars and bulls for the
entertainment of the populace.8 Cock-fighting, betting,
and horse-racing held the next rank about the period,
of the Conquest ; and some of the chief barons were as
decided patrons of the cock and dog-pits, as the most
distinguished amateurs, in modern times, of the turf
and of the ring.

In addition to hawking and hunting, skating seems
to have been a favourite diversion with the Normans of
William's reign, though compelled, we are told, to per-
form their slippery evolutions upon the shank bones of
a sheep. They were so dexterous also as to tilt at each
other in their career with blunted spears.9

It is hardly possible to form an adequate idea of the
ardour with which the Conqueror and his family pur-
sued the sports of the field. So great was their dis-
regard of danger of every kind, that the only wonder is
that no more than his two sons, Richard ' and William
Rufus, fell victims to their strange temerity. To those
sports they devoted every moment when not engaged
in council or in the field ; on them they lavished their

7 Chron. Tournouen, A.D. 1066.
3 W. Stephan, Descript. Lond. p. 8.
9 Strutt ; Henry ; Blount.

1 Richard, the second son of William, was either gored to death by a
stag, or hung, like Absalom, by the hair of his head in a tree.

358 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

revenues, sacrificing to them their interest, their honour,
and humanity itself. If we are to believe John of Salis-
bury, Ci they were the only employments deemed worthy
of the attention of kings and the sons of kings; in
short, the supreme felicity of royal life. They pursued
wild beasts with even greater fury than they did their
subjects or their enemies themselves ; and by degrees
they became almost as great monsters and savages as
the beasts which they hunted. Husbandmen were driven
from their fields; and if one of the great hunters
passed near their habitation, they hurried to present all
the refreshments they had, or could buy or borrow,2 to
avoid being themselves hunted, involved in ruin, and
perhaps accused of treason." 3

We are assured that both the clergy and the ladies
were extremely fond of the same sports ; and Walter,
Bishop of Rochester, was so confirmed a sportsman
that, though an octogenarian, he was wholly absorbed
in the fascinating pursuit, to the neglect of all his
apostolic affairs.4 The young Norman dames were so
accomplished in the gentle craft of hawking, that they
were thought to excel the most skilful of their knight
suitors or pages themselves; from which some his-
torians unfairly assume that hawking must have been
a very trifiing and frivolous amusement.5

The drama then in vogue at William's court con-
sisted, for the most part, of plays composed by the
clergy; and, with the exception of some amateur per-
formers, exclusively acted by them and by their scholars.
These represented scriptural events, or some illustrious
action in the lives of the saints. There were secular

2 J. Sarisburiensis ; De Nugis Curialium, 1. i. c. 4. 3 Ibid.

4 P. Bliseus, Ep. 56, 80. 5 J. Sarisburien. 1. i. c. 4, 13, 14.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 359

plays, however, of a very different character/ which the
clergy were prohibited from attending, agreeably to the
16th Canon of the fourth general council of the Late-
ran. To judge by their merits, this seemed a very
proper measure, consisting as they did of a compound
of ribaldry and mimicry, added to other means of rais-
ing the mirth of the audience, with little regard to
propriety.7 They were enacted by strollers, well quali-
fied to fill their several parts, who almost uniformly
followed in the train of the court and visited the castles
of earls and barons, where they were sure to meet with
a warm and hospitable reception. Yet their exhibi-
tions, we are assured, were often of the most despicable
and even disgusting kind.8

Great expertness in the games of cards, of dice, and
other modes of dissipating property, was considered an
indispensable accomplishment by the Normans. Peter
de Blois, in one of his letters to a friend, attributes the
profligacy of a youth whom he had under his care to
the previous education he had received. " For who can
wonder," he says, "that he should prove a vicious
young man, who in his childhood was taught to play at
dice, which we know is the mother of perjury, theft,
and sacrilege ?" 9

" In our times," says another writer, " expertness in
the art of hunting, dexterity in the damnable art
of dice-playing, a mincing, effeminate way of speaking,
and great skill in dancing and music, are the most
admired accomplishments of our nobility. In these
arts the young lords imitate the examples and improve

2 Henry, iii. ; Strutt.

7 Du Pin, Eccles. c. xiii. 4, 98 ; Henry, iii. 597.

5 J. Sarisburiensis, 1. i. c. 8, 32-4. 9 P. Bliseus, Ep. 74.

360 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

upon the instructions of their fathers." Nor was this
love of gambling by any means confined to the nobility;
clergymen, and even bishops, are said to have spent
much of their time in these low arts of plunder.1

It appears that the noble gamesters of that period were
perfect masters, and that they had no fewer than ten dif-
ferent games of dice, of which the historian, not to scanda-
lise the public, we presume, has given us only the Latin
names. To such an excess were these pursuits carried
in succeeding reigns, that a special law was promulgated
against them both in France and England, by Richard I.
and Philip Augustus, a measure which was found neces-
sary for the protection of their expedition to the Holy
Land.2 This was not, however, made to extend to the
monarchs and to their courts; and it is curious to
observe how early class legislation began to obtain, even
for the monopoly of iniquitous practices like these. It
seems that the royal and noble privilege to sin on this
occasion, extended no lower than to the knights and
clerks, " for none in our army," runs the act, " shall
play at any kind of game for money except knights and
clerks, who shall not lose more than twenty shillings 3
in one day and one night " . . . " But the two kings
shall be under no such restrictions, but they may play
for as much money as they shall please." This is ex-
tremely exemplary ; and then comes the usual penalty
for the least infringement of the act to the purport, that
"if any other soldiers" — for these mighty monarchs
were cautious not to be trapped in their own law,
" servants or sailors, shall be found playing for money

1 Ord. Vitalis.

" J. Sarisburiensis ; Henry ; Blount ; Strutt.

3 Equal to about ^15 of our money at this time.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 361

among themselves, they shall be punished in the follow-
ing manner, unless they can purchase a pardon from
the commissioners by paying what they shall think
proper to demand. Soldiers and servants shall be stript
naked, and whipt through the army for three days.
Sailors shall be as often plunged from their ships into
the sea, according to. the custom of mariners." 4

Of the religious superstition of the Normans in the
Conqueror's reign, many curious and amusing examples
are to be found. Monkish legends and lives of the
saints had already begun to abound. From these it
would appear that the Normans of that age were not
less credulous than the people whom they conquered.
This naturally opened a rich field for the ingenious fic-
tions in which the old historians delighted to luxuriate.
We are entertained with the pranks of imps and demons,
related with the same seriousness as the best authen-
ticated exploits of the most renowned knights ; 5 and we
may wander through a world of miracles, visions, and
enchantments, as grand as the Arabian Nights, till we
are wearied with the gorgeous display. One of these
illustrious sprites, we are assured, happening to be an
official personage, and out of place, obtained a charac-
ter, from whom it is not explained, as a gentleman's
butler, the duties of which situation he discharged with
the greatest sobriety and probity. Another being of a
studious turn, became eminent for his learning, was
duly ordained, and rose high in the favour of the arch-
bishop. He was also an excellent historian, and being
engaged, we are to infer, as his private chaplain, he
used to amuse the dignitary with telling him humorous
tales from the stores of his enlarged and curious research.

J. Brompton ; Chron. Benedict Abbas ; Henry. 5 Ibid.

362 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

But one day the conversation happened to take a
serious turn, when the learned devil observed that the
demons had certainly great power over mankind pre-
viously to the Christian era. " After that period/' he
continued with a sigh, " their power was very much cir-
cumscribed. In short," he added, forgetting himself in
the agreeable retrospect, as the greatest statesmen
sometimes will, " they were obliged to fly for it ; some
threw themselves into the sea, others took refuge in
hollow trees or in the clefts of rocks ; while I myself,
plunged into a certain fountain, and — "

Finding that he had betrayed his secret, as soon as
he had said this, (being a poor modest devil) his face
we are informed " was covered with blushes/' he pleaded
an engagement, took leave of his diocesan, who seems
to have expressed no surprise at so curious an occur-
rence, and was no more seen.6

The Anglo-Normans of William's time appear also to
have had great faith in auguries, dreams, and the grand
art of casting nativities from the aspect of the stars.
One of our writers 7 enumerates no fewer than thirteen
different kinds of fortune-tellers, who had a noble field
in which to display their powers. They not only
gleaned after the monks, but employed their own capital,
and reaped harvests for themselves. The delusions of
all kinds practised upon the ignorance and credulity of
the people surpass belief. So deeply were they imbued
with them that when some ceased they were open to
receive others, till it formed an inveterate habit of their
minds ; and from the custom of believing everything
told them by men whom they deemed as superior to

6 Giraldus Cambrensis ; Itin. Camlx 1. i. c. 12, 85, 3 ; Henry, iii. 575.

7 J. Sarisburiensis.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 363

themselves in knowledge as in station, they received
as gospel new deceptions practised upon them by suc-
cessive governments, and calculated to keep them, by
indirect means, in a hopeless state of ignorance, degra-
dation, and poverty.

No wonder that the shops of the fortune-tellers were
then thronged like those of our modern fashions, when
delusions regarding national interests and every-day
business of life have but filled the vacancy made by the
old feudal impostures, aided by monk and fortune-teller
— the grand Ephesian idol — still worshipped under
other names. Some of these sibyl teachers had recourse
to one process, and some to another.8 Nor did this
passion for penetrating into the future prevail only
among the common people, but received encourage-
ment from persons of the highest rank and greatest
learning. Nearly all our kings, and many of our earls
and great barons, had their astrologers, who resided in
their families, and were consulted by them in all under-
takings of importance.9 We find Peter of Blois, one of
the most learned men of his age, writing an account of
his dreams to his friend, the Bishop of Bath, and telling
him how anxious he had been about the interpretation
of them ; but that he had tried the plan of divination by
the Psalter.1

This credulous disposition and mental subjection to
popular errors of so many kinds, appears to have been
by4no means favourable to the moral character and the
conduct of the people. Were we to give credit to the
declamations of many writers at this period against the
vices of their countrymen, we should be inclined to

8 J. Sarisburiensis De Nugis Curialium, 1. i. c. 12, 853 ; Henry, iii. 575.

9 Henry, iii. 403, 575 ; P. Blesius, Ep. 80, 81. » Ibid.

364 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

believe that the Anglo-Normans were the most profligate
and vicious nation ever known. But these, it is well
observed/ ought to be received with some degree of
caution and distrust, for though a haughty, passionate,
and fierce people, the Normans were brave and generous.
The violations, however, of the laws of humanity,
chastity, and justice, prevailed so much at this period,
that they may truly be called their national vices.3
" When it pleased God to bring destruction upon the
English, he employed the Normans to execute his ven-
geance." 4 Their great power and prosperity appear to
have rendered them regardless of that respect and
decency with which women were generally treated.
Numbers of young ladies of rank, as we have shown,
who dreaded their violence, were compelled to take
shelter in nunneries, and to put on the veil to preserve
their honour.5

With regard to their legends and traditions, the
names given by the Normans to the imp and elf class of
demons, were often very pertinent and significant.
From " Gabbe," the old man, employed as the name of
a demon, they seem to have formed " goblin " or gobe-
lein (quasi gubbiliein). Saint Taurinus, we are told,
expelled one of these mischievous goblins from the
temple of Diana at Evreux, though he continued to
haunt the town in various shapes. He was there, how-
ever, harmless and playful, for the saint had bound him
to do no further injury. Not relishing this treatment,
the devil of Evreux took it into his head to change his
lodgings, and repaired to Caen. In the course of the
summer, the citizens of William's good town were much

2 Henry, iii. 576. 3 Ibid. 4 Hen Huntingdon, 212.

5 Eadmer, Hist. 1. iii. ; Henry, Manners of the Normans, &c. v. iii.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 365

annoyed by him, as lie had thus got beyond the juris-
diction of the saint. He was arrayed in white armour,
and was so tall that he looked into the upper story
windows. Once the noble governor happened to pop
upon the intruder in turning a corner suddenly into a
cul-de-sac, when instead of fainting or running away,
he challenged the great ugly goblin to fight. But the
demon captiously answered, "I don't hold my commission
from you, sir; and I shall give you no satisfaction of
the kind." Upon his saying this, six other devils started
up, all of the same size, and wearing the same uniform;
whereupon M. le Commandant thought it most pru-
dent to beat a retreat.

Ordericus Vitalis concludes his story by studiously
showing why the devil was allowed to range as a detenu
in the town of Evreux, instead of being sent at once
into solitary confinement in the black hole.6

6 See Quarterly Review, vol. xxii. 358, 9.

366 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

CHAPTER VIII.

Charges brought against King William— Efforts to destroy the English
language — Norman French or Romance Walloon tongue — In fashion
with all ranks — Question of investitures — Dispute with Pope Gregory
VII. — William carries his point — Hereditary succession — Primo-
geniture— Doomsday Book — Inclosures — Forest laws — Anecdotes of
the great land commission — Ingenious modes of enriching the treasury
— Partial legislation — Rapacity and avarice of Norman lords and
bishops — Odo, bishop of Bayeux — His immense wealth — Ambition —
Attempts to sail for Rome — Arrested by William in person — Illness
and death of queen Matilda — The Conqueror's grief — Character of
his consort — Architectural labours of William and his consort — Their
patronage of art — Improvements — Charters — Charges against her
memory — Absurd and unfounded — Threats of foreign invasion — Mer-
cenary troops — Rise of the Crusades — Not encouraged by William —
Summons a general council at Salisbury — Sets out for Normandy —
Rupture with Philip of France — Devastates the country — A truce —
Illness of the Conqueror — Sarcasm of the French king — How resented
by William — Invasion of France — Accident at the capture of Mantes —
Last illness and death — Speech attributed to him — Character of the
Conqueror — By the Saxons — By the Normans — Faults of character —
Advantages derived from his firm and severe government — His great
qualities — Funeral obsequies — Strange interruptions — Singular inci-
dents— Subsequent disinterments — Portraits of the Conqueror— Per-
sonal appearance and demeanour — Bayeux tapestry — His great seal —
Dissertation regarding his spurs and spoon.

WILLIAM lias been charged by most English contem-
porary writers with attempting to employ his power as
a conqueror to destroy the English language, an
undertaking hardly consistent with his acknowledged
judgment and penetration in regard to human affairs.
The Norman or French was naturally retained and
spoken by the nobles and at the court, whence it was

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 367

diffused through the higher ranks and the middle
orders of society, likewise vassals, knights, and clergy,
but without ever pervading the great body of the Eng-
lish people. That, however, there existed not merely a
wish but that attempts also were made for its partial
substitution, as far as practicable, there was sufficient
evidence in the law courts, in public acts as well as in
the schools, and in the feudal institutes of the times.
Beyond these, the effort, if seriously made, was not
successful.

The impression produced by such a conquest, at the
same time, was so great that the Norman-French con-
tinued to be the vehicle of correspondence, of the reli-
gious services, of the national laws, and other publie
records, up to the reign of the third Edward. The
native language, indeed, was adopted to serve special
purposes, and on peculiar occasions, as in conducting-
business with the inferior vassals, the subordinate
agents and the bulk of the freemen, common people,
and serfs, all of whom seemed instinctively to agree in
repudiating that of the Conqueror. This became a
traditional legacy, a repugnance which is scarcely yet
worn out among the country gentry, the agricultural
class, and peasantry of every degree below them.

In the supreme courts and in private circles, the
Norman -French was exclusively employed, and it be-
came a sort of fashion for the English of different ranks
to follow the example set before them. The English
language, then, was preserved only, like a sacred dele-
gated treasure, along with the memory of freer laws
and simpler customs, in the heart of the people. Though
betrayed by all other ranks — by lords and prelates and
knights, with their host of underlings, aided by a Nor-

368 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

man police and Norman soldiers ever ready at their
beck — the old Anglo-Saxon customs and manners threw
their shield over the language of Chaucer and Shak-
speare. The spirit of constitutional liberty bade them
defiance to the last ; still developing, and to be deve-
loped, and seeking a temporary refuge from the storm
in the breasts of English yeomen.7

Yet it is difficult to believe that William was so
infatuated by success as to suppose that he could obli-
terate by any power of oppression the language of a
whole people. Whatever were his real motives, his
reputed desire to gain a perfect knowledge of that lan-
guage in his maturer years does not indicate a design
to extirpate it : and he had too many real foes to
encounter to dream of destroying his best and most
enduring monument, destined to spread to the remotest
regions the knowledge of his name, his power, and
his greatness. There was neither honour nor profit to
be derived from such a conquest.

He was, moreover, engaged in a more hopeful con-
test, about this period, with Pope Hildebrand (Gregory
VII.) the successor of Alexander II. on the perplex-
ing subject of investitures, the right to which that
pontiff again claimed, threatening to summon all the
powers of Europe to his aid. William had both a diffi-
cult and a delicate part to play.8 There was scarcely a
potentate of the age whom this fiery pontiff had not
excommunicated, not excepting the dreaded scourge of
the Church, the freebooting Guiscard himself. Yet so
submissively had even this adventurer received the
paternal chastisement as afterwards to come to his

7 Henry ; Lingard ; Mackintosh ; Alison.

8 Hume ; Hallam ; Alison ; Mackintosh.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 369

Holiness' s rescue, when hard pressed in the castle of
St. Angelo, by the Emperor Henry IV. The king
therefore had to deal with a man very different from
his predecessor — equally fiery, more haughty, and as
ambitious as himself.

Gregory now called upon him to do homage for his
crown to the Holy See, and to transmit the tribute, as
his predecessors had before done; alluding to the Peter-
pence, which had been voluntarily bestowed as a charity
by the Anglo-Saxon monarchs.

The king consented to the payment, but declined the
homage ; and, farther to show his sense of independence,
he refused permission to the English prelates to attend
the Papal council summoned to condemn the refractory
children of the one Church. After many threats and a
variety of ingenious stratagems employed on both sides,
William, not a whit dismayed by the failure of the
Emperor Henry, persevered in his purpose, and con-
trived to retain the right contended for up to the close
of his reign. But while he thus strenuously opposed
his more daring and powerful rivals, few men were
more mild to an unresisting enemy. Unfortunately, the
repeated conspiracies of the nobles and the hostile
spirit of the English had provoked him into acts of
cruelty and oppression, which have left a lasting stain
'upon his memory.9 Hence the barbarous policy, so
opposed to every principle of just government and the
progress of civilisation, of seizing the lands of the peo-
ple, the endowments of the church farms, hamlets, and
freeholds, to throw them back into forests and parks,
restoring them to their aboriginal dwellers for the

9 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. j Hume ; Henry ; Liugard ;
Mackintosh.

VOL. I. B B

370 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

pleasure of again destroying them, deserves the repro-
bation of all wise lawgivers : nor less so those absurd
and oppressive statutes for their protection, enacting
penalties of the most harsh and intolerable kind against
the exercise of a natural right, many of which, to the
disgrace of common sense and humanity, have been
allowed to continue unrepealed to the present day.
Our early poets, as well as our historians, dwell with
mournful interest upon the depopulating character of
these royal and arbitrary enclosures — a bold example
not lost upon a grasping aristocracy intent on extend-
ing their feudal power.

The picture drawn by Drayton of the New Forest is
touching in the extreme. Nor did this all-devouring
and avaricious spirit of "William's government, from the
king down to his lowest officers, escape the justly satiric
lashes of other English writers, didactic, moral, and
dramatic. Here, as in William's other laws, the grand
evil and fruitful source of so many national grievances
lay not so much in abrogating the old Saxon laws, as
in aggravating their faults and increasing their severity.
It was their administration under the feudal system, as
in the game and forest laws, in the confiscatory prin-
ciple, and the amassing of land and other property ii
few hands, after the Norman domination, instead of the
equal and just division among families, which then,
since, led to an intolerable state of national grievan<
and calamity.

If any proofs were wanting of the results of such
policy, they are to be found in the grand nation*
census commenced by William in the year 10 SI.1 Eve

1 Nouvelle Hist, do Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. Other writers assert thai
it was begun in 1078 ; a third party in 1080. It was not finished till

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 371

active and energetic, it was no onerous task for a mind
-early habituated to the details of public business to
draw out a model scheme by which to ascertain the
nature and extent of all the lands — the whole tangible
property — throughout England. The comparative value
of them in the last reign and the present showed, in
many instances, a striking deterioration consequent
upon the transfer and amalgamation of smaller farm*1
and tenements into one under the same feudal head.

Still, though undertaken from interested motives, it
was highly curious and useful as a lasting record of the
national wealth and possessions. This, William had
the sole merit of devising, maturing, and putting
into complete execution. It was the natural as well as
the last and best result of his great Norman system,
which by its power of centralisation was intimately con-
nected with the previous stages of its progress. From
its public utility also, in the ascertaining of descents
and titles, showing just cause of occupation as against
all other claimants, including the Crown, this general
land registry has been thought to do him more honour
than all his victories,2 though it boasted the not very
attractive title of Doomsday-book.

The survey was conducted by commissioners, who
took their information upon oath, with regard to the
following particulars — the names of all the occupants;
the name of every town and village — who held them in
King Edward's days — who are now in possession ? how
many freemen, villeins, and cottagers it contains ? how

the close of his reign, if we may believe Ingulphus, the very learned but
somewhat apocryphal abbot of Croyland.

2 Henry, Hist, of England ; Mackintosh ; Kennett ; Rapin ; Alison ;
Brodie.

B B 2

372 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

many hides of land in each manor?3 how many of the
latter in each demesne ? how much wood-land, meadow,
and pasture? how much the demesne paid in taxes in
King Edward's days, and how much now ? How many
mills are there, and streams, and fish-ponds ?

This grand inquisitorial registry, like the feudal
system itself, took cognisance of the smallest particulars
on which to found a knowledge of the resources of the
country, and how far its capabilities for bearing imposts
might extend. By its means William contrived to
raise his annual revenue to the amount of 400,OOOZ., a
sum equal to at least five millions of our present cur-
rency. But this grand item was independent of other
sources of income, in the shape of feudal privileges and
royal perquisites, fines, and forfeitures, licences for buy-
ing and selling, for granting leave to marry, charters,

3 To determine the number of each of these divisions of the people,
and the whole amount of the population, at the close of the Saxon period,
is a problem which we have not the means of solving, notwithstanding
the uncommon assistance which we derive from the great survey of the
kingdom. It is true that Doomsday Book has not yet been critically
examined for that purpose. But it may be doubted whether, if it were,
all our difficulties would disappear. Of the thirty-four counties examined
by Mr. Turner, four have no persons called slaves, and two of these
are the extensive counties of York and Lincoln ; while the proportion of
slaves to the body of the intermediate class, containing villeins, bordarsj
and cottars, was in Nottingham as one to a hundred and fifty, in Derby
as one to a hundred and thirty-nine, in Somerset as about one to six,
and in Devon nearly one to four.

The population of England, according to Mr. Turner's Tables, after the
desolation of the northern counties, was about 1,700,000 souls. If we
were to throw our intermediate class among slaves, the number of free-
men would be reduced below all probability. On the other hand, as long
as it is allowed that the villeins, cottars, and bordars were bound by
their tenures to serve their masters in agriculture, there is no improba-
bility in the small number of those reduced to the lowest slavery. —
Mackintosh, Hist, of England, i. 78 j Turner, Ang. Sax. Hist. iii. 284-297

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 373

grants, titles, &c., which, added to seizures and confis-
cations, must have supplied him with nearly half as
much more. This was emphatically his own ; the queen
and the princes and princesses being amply provided for
out of other imposts.

Subsidies were moreover granted, as a part of the
feudal system, to enable him to carry on the govern-
ment, as, for instance, upon the marriage of an eldest
daughter, or when any of his sons received knighthood.
When critically examined, therefore, William's " great
terrar," or Doomsday-book, was practically only a more
enlarged mode of levying national taxes ; and the pro-
ceedings of the income commissioners* like those of a
more modern date, are said to have been extremely
inquisitorial. Nor were they at all dissimilar; their
object being only a little more plainly avowed — "to
ascertain how much money every man had in his house,
and how much was owing to him." Their returns, if
we are to believe contemporary authorities, were often
partial. When not bribed, however, they were exceed-
ingly minute and particular, taking note of the " horses,
black cattle, swine, sheep, and the old dames' hives of
bees/'5

4 Among these the Abbot of Croyland (Ingulphus), speaking of his
own monastery of Croyland, says : — " The commissioners were so kind
and civil that they did not give in the true value of it." We may, there-
fare, conclude that whenever the proprietors made it worth their while,
they were equally obliging elsewhere. Yet it was at the risk of severe
punishment, that any fraud, favour, connivance or concealment was
practised by either the owners of the property or the commissioners.
The survey was made by presentment of juries, appointed from every
hundred, or wapentake, or county, and sworn in before commissioners f
consisting of the greatest earls, bishops, or leading persons in the district.
— Brady. Robert of Gloucester, in his rhyming Chronicle, gives a curiou3
account of the Doomsday Book.

6 Chron. Sax. 186 ; Henry, Hist, of England.

374 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Other minute returns were ordered to be made by
the commissioners, of which we may form some idea
by the bulk of the two volumes, the Great and
Little Doomsday Book, ordered to be preserved in the
English Exchequer. There they were at hand, ready
to be consulted, as it was humorously remarked,
"- whenever it was requisite to know of how much more
wool the English flocks might be fleeced/-'6 It is
singular that, while William was thus employing his
Norman agents, he should hope to amalgamate the laws,
customs, and manners of the two people. It was like
the attempt of king Darius, who had a colony of Greeks
and Indians under the same dominion. Herodotus in-
forms us that they quarrelled respecting their dead ; the
former insisting that they should be burnt, the latter
that they should be eaten, until, the controversy grow-
ing warm, an appeal was made to his Persian majesty,,
who summoned the Grecians into his presence : "What
is it I hear ? that you have refused to eat your dead >
friends? It is my pleasure that you should conform
yourselves to the custom of my Indians, and eat them
without more demur." But such was the clamour and
violence of the Greeks at the bare idea, that the king
sent for the Indians, and declared that it would be
better they should agree with the Greeks, and burn their
dead. Finding the Indians more intractable than their
opponents, he reiterated his orders, and commanded the
Greeks to eat their friends without more ado.

The Normans of William, however, showed the supe-
riority of their taste, by feasting upon the English
Avhile they were alive, extracting from them the genuine
vital principle in the form of goods and money. When

6 Polydore Virgil.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR,. 373

the great feeders were grown into high condition, they
were in their turn served up for the royal table, both
lay and clergy ; and William's grand survey now fur-
nished him with an accurate knowledge of the supplies
in possession of the Church, of the nobility, and of the se-
cond and third rate classes of landowners, then gradually
emerging into notice. "With regard to the crown lands,
however, he was too excellent an economist to stand in
need of any information7 which such a survey could afford
him. To ascertain the number, quality, and wealth, of
all his subjects, by which a political prince might esti-
mate his powers either of resistance or attack, was
William's great object ; and these particulars lay deli-
neated as upon a map before him.8 It formed an excel-
lent model for the labours of future commissioners;
and for that well-spring of state patronage to which all

1 The royal revenue was composed in part of the thirteen hundred
and twenty-two great fiefs, which paid a rental to the Crown either in
money or in kind. In his domestic and economical government; as well
as in other particulars, William bore a striking resemblance to the
reigning French monarch ; and, like him too, he was justly regarded as

the most wealthy sovereign of his time Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle

Hist, de Nor. ; Hume ; Lingard.

8 The feudal custom of going round the boundaries of the parish has
continued to the present times. This " seizin or possessioning," as it is
called, was recently observed at Waddesdon, Bucks, to the gratification
of a number of spectators. The village clergyman acted as the general-
issimo, at the instance of a neighbouring duke, who is the " lord para-
mount," there being several manors in the parish. Abundance of
mirth, as well as eating and drinking, continued during the two days.
The ancient custom of " turning up," that is, of placing on the head and
inflicting the familiar punishment on any one who happened to be met at
the boundary points, was performed to the alarm of several parties,
especially of those unacquainted with the custom. One traveller, we are
told, was met at the boundary of the bridge, riding along, and not having
immediately responded to the call made upon him, he was pulled from
his vehicle, set upon his head, and received the usual compliment.

376 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

ruling parties are in turn indebted for their support.
They little imagine, perhaps, their amount of obligation
to the old Norman founder of the complicated and re-
munerating system which now obtains in government,
in law, and in the church, in the various details and
business character of which no ruler was ever more
thoroughly versed.

The great Alfred, indeed, had made a survey of the
country, as appeared from the rolls, said to have been
long preserved at Westminster: and these probably
may have assisted the royal commissioners in their
inquiries. The honour, however, of having accomplished
the work on so great a scale — a full report of the state
of England — was reserved for William. It proved that
his stern, but in many respects enlightened system of
rule, was his own ; and had not his love of order, eco-
nomy, and strict discipline, been alloyed by avarice,
cruelty, and revenge, his vigorous and statesmanlike
measures must have been earlier productive of inesti-
mable benefits to England.

The misfortune was, that he regarded it rather as a
conquered province, a colony for supplying means to
carry on his military enterprises, than a kingdom to
which he had succeeded by the free will of the people,
as under the Saxon kings. Hence the distinction he
made between England and Normandy. The heroic and
enlightened leader became the stern, vindictive monarch,
when provoked by repeated resistance, goaded by ava-
rice and ambition, and intoxicated with success.9

9 William's was an extirpatory conquest, the object of which was to
root out every vestige of liberty, and bring the English into servitude
and contempt. The French language was taught in schools, the English
forbidden, and everything conducted on the Roman law of conquest, to

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 377

He was, however, impartial in his severity ; and the
wholesome discipline which he maintained at this time
(1082), extending to the highest dignitaries both in
Church and State, was not without its salutary influence
upon the minds of the people. He was desirous of re-
pressing all rapine but his own. The feuds of private
revenge, the lawlessness of public robberies, were re-
pressed; and a girl loaded with gold, we are told,
might have passed safely through the kingdom.1 In
short, William seems to have been of opinion with the
witty Dean of St. Patrick's, that order is the Creator's
chief agent, that the devil is the author of confusion,
and that nothing can be right or legal of which we
cannot render up a strict account.2

William attached the same stern doctrine to the dis-
charge of other men's duties from the habits he had
early formed of never sparing himself, being equal to
the most intense and unremitting exertion, both of body
and of mind. It was this animating principle which gave
him so undisguised a contempt for his eldest son, Robert
of Normandy, whose excessive indolence and general
apathy, when not spurred on by some extraordinary im-
pulse, in spite of the pains taken with his education,
induced William to predict that his end would be
grievous and lamentable.3

unnationalise and swamp — in short, to transfer a whole people to the
servitude of another people. — See Haddon MSS.

1 Chron. Sax. 190 ; M. Paris, 10 ; Hallam ; Henry ; Lingard.

2 Works of Dean Swift, Journal to Stella, ii. Scott's edition.

3 It appears from some MSS. in possession of the Highland Society of
Scotland, that the Schola Salcrnitana, in Leonine verse, drawn up in the
year 1100 by the famous medical school of Salerno, was for the use of
King William's son, Robert Duke of Normandy. One of the maxims is
as follows : —

378 WILLIAM THE CONQUEIIOB,.

Of no sinecure nature, therefore, were the offices of the
king's great dignitaries, either in Church or State, whose
revenues speedily found their way to the royal treasury,
unless they exerted themselves as diligently as the
generals of his army, or the inspectors of his new police.
An incident occurred about this time which admirably
illustrates the view we have throughout taken of his
character ; and which shows that, however avaricious,
passionate, and vindictive, when crossed in his royal
prerogative, he knew how to take advantage of any
flagrant act or outrageous conduct in those around him,,
to swell the amount of his royal rent -rolls. He spared
neither relatives nor nobles, lay nor clergy; and the
example he now made of his uterine brother Odo, in
his twofold capacity, was a proof of the strict principle
upon which he proceeded.

In his prelatic ambition, that dignitary had fixed his
eye, like the haughty Wolsey of later times, upon the
throne of St. Peter; and, to compass his ambitious
views, like him, too, he had grasped and contrived to
conceal immense wealth. "With this he now proposed
to repair to Rome, the time being ripe for the com-
pletion of his long meditated enterprise. But he chose
the wrong hour ; his evil star was in the ascendant ;
and the rumour of his intention reached the kiiigV
ears, who resolved to lose not a moment in securing so
great a prize. He was well aware of the violence and

" Si vis incolumem, si vis te reddere sanum,
Curas tolle graves ; irasci crede profauum."

No. 63 MS. ii., in possession of the Higlt~

Soc. of Scotland.

That it was prepared at the desire of William would appear from the
following line : —

" Anglorum regi scripsit schola tota Salerni."

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 379

extortion by which such wealth had been amassed,
even at the expense of his own popularity ; and, inde-
pendent of inflicting due punishment, he had, agreeably
to his own prerogative doctrine, a perfect right to the
possession of it. Mistrusting the efficacy of his mes-
sengers in so important an affair, King "William followed
them in person, and, travelling post haste, came up with
his good brother, the bishop, just as he was on the point
of taking ship from the Isle of Wight. He had paid
no attention to the royal missives, and started back in
dismay when he beheld William himself, accompanied
by his officers, enter the apartment. Upon the plea
of his ecclesiastical privileges, he had hitherto escaped ;
no one had dared to lay hand upon the Lord's ordained,,
entrenched in his sacred ensigns and privileges. These
he now urged as vehemently as before to his royal bro-
ther, claiming immunity for his sacred office; protesting
it was out of the power of any temporal potentate on
earth to interfere with him. " God forbid ! " cried
William, " that I should invade your sacred office, or
touch a hair of the Bishop of Bayeux's head ; far be
such sacrilege from me : I come here only to arrest the
Earl of Kent."4 Then leaving the bishop to take care
of himself, the king arrested the earl ; but, still gratify-
ing him with an intended voyage, sent him over the
sea to the castle of Rouen, where the unlucky prelate
lay ensconced up to -the close of the king's reign.3
Other authorities, however, assert that, on William's-
own voyage into Normandy in the ensuing year, he
called the imprisoned earl before him, avoiding all

4 Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Chron. Sax. 186 ; Lin-
gard ; Hume ; Mackintosh ; Henry.

5 W. Pict. ; Walsingham.

380 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

allusions to the bishop, and after giving him a severe
lecture in his temporal character, restored him to
liberty ; and at the same time pardoned the unfortunate
earl Morcar, who had so long lingered in prison.

It was about the same period that William carried into
complete effect the inclosure of the New Forest, and other
of his royal chases which had at intervals so long occupied
his attention. These were purely acts of his arbitrary
pleasure, the violence and injustice of which no implied
assent of his councils could authorise or excuse. They
were enforced with the Norman sword and fire, which
swept the population and the harvests before them, and
were maintained by the atrocious and sanguinary system
of the game and forest laws, which inflicted mutilation6
and even death ; crimes which are still continued to be
perpetrated by them, the chief difference being in the kind
of instruments of torture employed. Even Blackstone,
a tolerably good conservative, designates the modern acts
" as a bastard slip of the old stock, those forest laws of
the Conqueror/'' The frivolousness of the cause in
planting the New Forest is also alluded to by several
writers.7 It is stated to have extended its ravage over
a surface of thirty miles ; lands to which the king's
title over sees and churches, villages, farms and man-
sions appears, to say the least of it, very questionable.
To his demesne of Windsor he was enabled to show
a better right — more becoming the character of a great
and magnanimous prince, and he suitably adorned it
with one of the most splendid castles in the world. His
extreme fondness for field sports can serve as no plea
for systematic cruelty and oppression ; and it was not

6 The penalty for killing a stag or a boar was loss of eyes. — Chron.
Sax."; Hallam ii. 163. 7 Hallam ; Brodie ; W. of Malms.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 381

without some show of reason that the Saxon historians
declared that " he loved the tall deer as if he had been
their father/' of which the penalties attached to their
capture or injury seemed to furnish another proof.8

Such were William's predilections for these sports;
and it further appears that he would have made an ad-
mirable Chancellor of the Exchequer ; " for" we are told,
"notwithstanding his great pleasure in hunting and
making of great feasts, he passed all others in levying of
taxes to the intent that he would excel all other in riches,
or else for to withstand his enemies, or to staunch the ap-:
petite of his covetous mind. Also, this man made the
New Forest in the county of Southampton, the which
to bring about he cast down divers churches/'9

Forest laws, instead of being imposed, like other laws,
by the supreme legislature, seem to have been aban-
doned to the arbitrary will and discretion of the prince.
They were, however, known in England before the
Conquest. Under the Anglo-Saxon government, every
man had a right to hunt in his own woods and fields- ;
but if he trespassed on the king's hunting he was . sub-
ject to a severe fine ; and in some cases to a heavier
punishment.1 But the rigour of these laws was greatly
increased after the Conquest ; and it is not improbable
that this change was effected by the sole authority of
the Conqueror. The royal forests were part of the de-
mesne of the Crown. They were not included in the
territorial divisions of the kingdom, civil or ecclesiastical,
nor governed by the ordinary courts of law, but were
set apart for the recreation and diversion of the king.

8 Henry ; Chron. Sax. ; Fabyan's Chron. by Sir H. Ellis ; Nouv. Hist,
de Nor. 9 Ibid.

1 Wilkins, 146 ; Spelman's Glossary, Foresta ; Edinburgh Review,
xxvi.

382 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

This arbitrary government of the forests was assumed
Ibj the Crown on the pretence that, being the private
property of the king, he had a right to protect them,
from depredation, and to preserve the game which they
harboured for his own use and pleasure. Like other
usurpations of authority, this prerogative would acquire
strength by precedent, and obtain a sort of tacit con-
firmation by the silence of the legislature ; but, when
extended beyond its primitive object, and employed as
an instrument of general oppression by the Conqueror
and his successors, it provoked the interference of the
great council, by whose exertions this arbitrary au-
thority was first limited, and finally wrested from the
Crown.2

It was no small aggravation of the forest laws that,
from the time of the Conquest, the Kings of England
assumed a right of not only afforesting the demesnes
of the Crown, but of extending the bounds of the
royal forests over the lands of others, which became
thereby subject to the laws : this seems, however, to
have been an illegal exercise of authority. It is so
considered by Sir Edward Coke,3 and was never quietly
submitted to by the people. It formed, indeed, a fre-
quent subject of complaint during the reigns of the
Norman kings. Another subject which much occupied
the attention of King William was, the completion of
his grand town palace and fortress, called the Tower of
London ; he now also proceeded with the bridge of the
same name, and with his fortresses in Northumberland,
besides various other public works. He had, indeed,
at this time, thoroughly succeeded in establishing his
feudal system, of which these strong towers, and for-

2 Edin. Review, vol. xxvi. 3 Institutes iv. 300.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 383

tresses might be called the bones.4 The emparking
and afforestation of the people's lands — for they were
no other — which everywhere surrounded these central
citadels of the usurped power of the few,, might justly
be termed the sinews and muscles which enabled them
to act. Among the notes on the amusing poem of the
Red King,, by the late Mr. W. S. Rose/ we observe
one in proof of the depopulation of the New Forest, a
fact which Voltaire in his random scepticism has pre-
tended to ridicule. Two successive surveys, however,,
of the lands in question, before and after the afforesta-
tion, corroborate the testimony of historians by the
diminished value of income which they record.6 It is
not meant to assert, as Voltaire imagines, that an ac-
tual forest was created by William ; but, that a large
tract of wooded country was converted by him into a
royal chase, and consequently depopulated, either by
the oppressiveness of the forest laws, or by some indi-
rect acts of violence. The latter opinion is espoused
by Mr. Rose, and seems most consonant to the voice of
history and the character of William.

In the year 1083, William was suddenly called into
Normandy by the alarming illness of his consort, to whom
we have often observed he was so faithfully attached. The

4 Hallam, ii. 165.

5 Parthenopex de Blois, &c., by William Stewart Rose ; Edin. Review,
xiii. 426.

6 These are preserved in Doomsday Book. Before the survey of the
Conqueror these manors were estimated at 193^ hides, 56 yard lands,
8 acres, 271 pounds, 2218 shillings. In the second census they are
represented as consisting of 59 hides, 59^ yard lands, 6i acres, of which
the value is rated at 85 pounds, 964 shillings. The amount of the loss
occasioned by the afforestation, therefore, will be 1391 hides, 2i yard
lands, H acres, 186 pounds, 1254 shillings.— See Edin, Review, xiii. 426 ;
Doomsday Book, p. 202.

384 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

death of Matilda, the love of his youth, associated with
him through so many years of peril and trial, is said to
have affected him extremely. She was the only queen
who had shared his throne and bed; and, both from
early associations and long habits, it is probable that at
his age he felt such a blow very differently from some
of his profligate and abandoned successors. He is said
to have given up his customary amusements, even his
favourite field sports ; though it must be confessed that
his enemies allowed him little leisure for them during
the remainder of his reign. She had, besides, no com-
mon charms both of mind and person, was extremely
accomplished and agreeable, with not a few more solid
attainments. Their tastes and pursuits also accorded ;
a union which is strikingly evinced in the immense
number of edifices built by them in common, and other
improvements. Both patronised men of art and learn-
ing, such as then flourished, and were extremely
bountiful in their donations and charitable bequests, if
giving back by drops what they had drawn from the
people of England by streams can be thought to deserve
the name of bounty. Queen Matilda had, moreover,
borne to the Conqueror a large family, several of whom
died either young, or before their parents. The eldest,
Robert, succeeded his father in Normandy, the second^
Richard, was killed while hunting in the New Forest,
William and Henry were both afterwards Kings of
England ; and there were five daughters. These were
Cecilia, who assumed the veil; Constance, married to
the Duke of Brittany, Agatha, contracted to King
Harold when an Earl, afterwards to Alphonso, King of
Galicia, but who died on her route to Spain; Alice,

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 385

who died young, and Adela, who became the wife of
Stephen, Earl of Blois.7

There are some singular, but, as far as we can ascer-
tain, unfounded charges, which have been brought
against the consort of William, by Saxon writers. Her
conduct in some respects, indeed, was far from irre-
proachable; the vindictive spirit that impelled her to
denounce her former lover ; her abetting Robert in his
rebellion ; and conspiring to deprive her husband's most
faithful adherents of their property, are serious draw-
backs, and afforded grounds for the imputation that she
was treacherous and abandoned. That she carried on
an intrigue with her colleague in the Norman govern-
ment, the elder de Beaumont, placed in so high a trust
by his master, a nobleman old enough to be her father,
is an accusation too improbable to be maintained : nor
is it likely that any vassal would venture upon ground
so dangerous with the consort of a lord paramount like
the Conqueror. As if to make these tales still more
incredible, it is added that she entreated her consort,
after the battle of Hastings, to lay a tax upon " all the
bastards in England," and to be permitted to appropriate
the proceeds ; a cool, sarcastic insult for which she
wanted both the courage and the inclination.8 The
whole is evidently a tissue of calumnies invented by
some envious or disappointed enemies.

Another source of anxiety to the king at this period

"» Ord. Vit. 638 ; W. of Malms. 68.

8 Upon this, we are told that William, in a great rage, ordered her to
"be tied to a horse's tail, and to be dragged through St. Giles's to West-
minster. This is in perfect accordance with the other tales propagated
by the Lady Grentemesnil, of rolling the fair Matilda in the mud, and
almost beating her to death with a bridle, for putting one of his mistresses
to a cruel death.

VOL. I. C C

386 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROll.

arose from the preparations making on a great scale, by-
Canute IV., King of Denmark, for the invasion of
England. It was rendered more formidable by the
countenance given to it by William's enemies. Robert
le Frison, Earl of Flanders, though related to William,
joined the Danish confederacy with 600 vessels. The
intrigues of Philip, King of France, with Robert and
the disaifected nobles, threatened the stability of his
Norman dominions, while the renewed quarrels of his
sons, and their extreme licentiousness,9 embittered the
closing years of his life. He soon, however, found
other employment for them, and levied an immense
army composed of Norman, English, and foreign mer-
cenaries. These were for several months quartered
upon the people, and the whole country, moreover, was
compelled to pay a sort of poll-tax for their support ; l
an additional evidence that the Conqueror regarded
England as a great military colony, adapted for promot-
ing his warlike enterprises not only upon the continent,
but against his turbulent neighbours. He had always
stipendiary troops at his command,2 who were quartered
upon the people according to the proportion of their
estates. Indeed there can be little doubt that, had not
his domestic enemies in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland,
found him sufficient employment nearer home, he would
long before have sat down before the gates of Paris,
thus first adding to his laurels a conquest reserved for
some of his heroic successors.

9 William wished his son Robert to marry the heiress of Earl Waltheof,
which he refused to do ; although, smitten with her beauty, he was eager
to obtain possession of her charms. Incensed that a ward of his should be
treated with disrespect, which he considered an insult offered to himself,
it is said that he forbade him the court. — Henderson, Life of the Con-
queror, i H. Huntingdon, i. 7, 212 j Henry, Hist, of England.

2 Hallam, ii. 164 ; Ingulphus, 79.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 387

During his stay in Normandy, King William gave a
striking proof of that solidity of judgment which so
pre-eminently distinguished him. The first grand
crusade was then loudly preached by Peter the Hermit,,
but his doctrine made no impression upon a mind con-
stituted like that of William. He saw at a glance the
folly and impracticable character of such a fanatical
enterprise. He ridiculed the arguments set up in its
favour; and especially the wild, infatuated love of
knight-errantry evinced by Robert, though he did not
attempt to dissuade him from so mad an expedition,
Nor did he oppose the same design on the part of the
Saxon, Edgar Atheling, who was also bent upon a
knight-pilgrimage to the Holy Land. William had
uniformly treated him with the lenity and forbearance
that his feeble character seemed to deserve ; and he not
only gave him permission, but supplied him with a
retinue of two hundred knights, at the head of whom
he is said to have served with honour against the
Saracens for a period of two years.3

In 1084, William was gratified with the welcome
tidings that King Canute, daunted by the extent of his
preparations, and the continued prevalence of contrary
winds, had relinquished his expedition. He was thus
enabled to disband his mercenaries, to the great joy of
his English subjects. Still he was allowed no time for
repose ; he had stifled but not extinguished the confe-
derate efforts provoked by King Philip and the rebel-
lious Robert; and he was once more compelled to direct
his attention to the affairs of Normandy.4

3 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Smollett, i. 438. '

4 Chron. Sax. ; Henry ; Hume ; Nouvelle Histoire de Normandie ;
Hallam, ii. 168.

C C 2

388 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Before leaving England, however, in 1086, William
summoned a grand assembly of his prelates, nobles and
knights, to meet him at Salisbury on the 1st of August
in that year. There he received their oaths of fealty,
and required them to advance large sums to defray the
expense of his expedition. In thus receiving the fealty
of all landholders in chief as well as of their tenants,
William broke in on the feudal compact in its mos
essential attribute — the exclusive dependence of a vas
sal upon his lord.

Upon his arrival in Normandy, he took prompt and
vigorous measures to counteract the designs of his
enemies. The Count de Nevers had made incursions
into Maine, and become master of the castles of Beau-
mont, Frenay, and St. Suzanne.5 William soon reduced
him to obedience, and, to prevent similar depredations,
erected a strong fortress in the valley of Bengy.6 The
other insurgents submitted, and, having knighted his
son Henry, who attended him in this expedition, with
his brothers, he now determined to call King Philip to
a strict account.

That wily potentate had long afforded protection to
his rebel son, as well as to his unruly barons; and
the long score of grievances was at last to be settled.
Recently, two of the Conqueror's sons had been on a
visit at the court of France, and a quarrel which took
place between the young princes had the effect of exas-
perating the causes of strife already subsisting on other
misunderstandings. Prince Henry, it appears, actually
struck Philip's heir. The monarch was greatly incensed,
and there was no longer the least hope of accommodat-
ing the matters in dispute. Resenting the affront as a

5 Ord, Vit. 648 ; Chron. de Nor. ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. 6 Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 389

personal insult, the King of France was the first to
draw the sword. His army crossed the Eure, and
began to ravage the plains of Normandy.7 Seizing
upon the town of Vernon, De Beaumont, William's
general, threw himself into the fortress, while the king
advanced in person to give battle to the enemy. The
French, however, had the prudence to retreat, and the
Conqueror entered the city of Beauvais in triumph.
But there, feeling the symptoms of some approaching
malady, he was induced to listen to the terms offered
by his rival, and returned by slow marches to Rouen.
He was now advised by his physicians to try a course
of medicines, with a view at the same time of reducing
his extreme corpulence, which had long been a source
of annoyance to him.8 Philip, his mind still rankling
with jealousy and resentment, upon being told of this
circumstance, made a coarse and insulting observation,
inquiring in a scoffing tone, during a public audience,
whether " the good old woman of England was yet in
the straw ? " This silly sarcasm, added to other rail-
leries as innocent of wit, being reported to William,
threw him into a violent passion, and he is said to have
sworn " by God's brightness and resurrection/' that as
soon, as he got up he would light fires in France for
joy of his delivery, that would make Philip's kingdom
too hot to hold him. 9

William was as good as his word. Immediately on

7 Hist, de Nor. ; Chron. de Nor. ; Hume ; Henry.
' s Smollett, Hist, of England ; Chron. de Nor. ; Hist, de Nor.

9 Chron. de Nor. ; Hume ; Henry ; Lingard ; Nouv. Hist, de Nor.
This is the sense of William's words, namely, that " he would present so
many lights at Notre Dame," &c. alluding to the custom usually observed
by ladies at that time, after being confined in childbed.— Hume, Hist, of
Eng. Hughes, ed. i. 1 1 .

390 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

his recovery, lie led an army into France, and laid every-
thing waste with fire and sword. He attacked the town
of Mantes, which, with its churches and monasteries,
he reduced to a heap .of ashes.1 But here his tempes-
tuous career drew to a close.2 Before the flames were
fully extinguished, he entered the town in triumph, and
it was now that the accident occurred which brought
his extraordinary and eventful reign to a sudden close.
In passing by a burning house, his horse placed his fore
feet upon some hot embers, and plunged with such vio-
lence that the king was thrown upon the pummel of
his saddle. In a bad habit of body, and advanced in
years, he at once apprehended the worst consequences,
and ordered himself to be conveyed in a litter to the
city of Rouen, but not till he had compensated the unfor-
tunate inhabitants of Mantes with a large sum of money.3
At Rouen, the king was attended by Gilbert, Bishop
of Lisieux, and Goulard, abbot of Jumieges, esteemed
the most skilful physicians of their time. Notwith-
standing all their efforts, the disease- gained ground,
and they had soon to inform the mighty Conqueror that
his end was fast approaching. Finding, too late, that
he could no longer enjoy the fruits of his dominion, he
did all in his power to compound with Heaven for the
blood he had shed, and the injustice he had committed.

1 Nouv. Hist, de Nor. ; Cliron. de Nor. ; Lingard ; Henry ; Smollett.

2 By some writers William is stated to have penetrated as far as the
gates of Paris, " the people abandoning all places where he came, and
giving forth that it was better the nests should be destroyed, than that
the birds should be taken in them. At the last he came before Paris,
where Philip, King of France, did then abide ; to whom he sent word
that he had recovered to be on foot, and was walking about, and would be
glad likewise to find him abroad."— Hay ward, Life of King William I.

3 W. of Malms. ; Ord. Vit. ; Walsingham ; Henry.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 391

He first ordered his attendants to remove Mm to the
monastery of St. Gervas, that he might die on holy
ground ; made haste to distribute such treasure as he
had by him to the poor, and in benefactions to new
churches and monasteries, so many of the old ones of
which he had ransacked and destroyed. He was struck
with keen remorse, likewise, for the cruelties and
oppressions he had exercised towards the English,4
being well aware that the memory of the tyrant is long
held in hatred by the people.

He is stated, moreover, to have left the sum of
G0,000/. in alms, as some expiation of the injustice by
which it had been accumulated. Orders were given
that the English nobles and other prisoners should be
set at liberty; and he was even prevailed upon to
forgive his brother Odo, whom he had despoiled and
imprisoned.

It must have been no affected repentance which
opened the prison-doors for the bishop, and brought
the Conqueror himself to that last dying speech and
confession attributed to him by so many Saxon writers,
but hardly, we think, upon sufficient grounds.5

After indulging, it is averred, in a long discourse 6 —

4 H. Hunting. ; Ord. Vit. 656.

5 See W. of Malms. ; W. Pict ; Speed ; Walsingham ; Ord. Vit.

6 It may be read, however, with advantage by all conquerors and
prime ministers, who, in their pride of place, flatter themselves -that they
can govern the world by coercion alone. How many might repeat with
truth the solemn confession attributed to the Conqueror ! " Being laden
with many and grievous sins (oh Christ !) I now tremble, who am ready
to be taken hence, and to be tried by the severe, but just examination of
God. I, that have always been brought up in wars, and am polluted with
the effusion of blood, am now utterly ignorant what to do ; for I cannot
number my offences, they are so infinite, and have been committed by me
now these sixty-four years ; for which, without any delay, I must render

392 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

too long and pointless to have proceeded from the lips
of so great a monarch — he declared his last will and

an account to that most upright judge. From my tender infancy and
age of eight years, I have hitherto sustained the weight and charge of
arms to defend my dukedom, governed by me almost fifty-six years, both
in preventing those snares that have been laid for my life, and in van-
quishing those conspirers which would have usurped my right. A stiff-
necked people I may well say my arm hath had to manage ; I mean the
Normans, who, with a hard hand if they be curbed, are most valiant, and
in hazardous attempts invincible. For as they excel all men in strength,
so do they contend to overcome all men by valour. But if the rein be
once let loose and laid on their necks, they will tear and consume one
another ; for they are ever seditious, and desirous of new stirrings. Ex-
perience of these things sufficiently I have had, not only of my own con-
federates and allies, but even of my own kindred, denouncing me to be a
bastard, degenerate, and unworthy of government. Against these I have
been forced to put on armour before I was by age ripe to wield it ; all
which I have vanquished, and some of them captured, God so preserving
me that they never had their desires. A royal diadem which none of
my predecessors ever wore, I have gotten, not by right of inheritance,
but by heavenly grace. What labours and conflicts I have sustained
against those of Excester, Chester, Northumberland, Scots, Gauls, Nor-
wegians, Danes, and others, who have endeavoured to take the crown
from me, is hard to declare ; in all which the lot of victory fell ever on
my side. Yet these worldly triumphs, however they may please the
sense and outward man, leave behind an inward horror and fearful care
which pricketh me, when I consider that cruel rashness was as much fol-
lowed as was the just prosecution of the cause. Wherefore I most humbly
beseech you, 0 ye priests and ministers of Christ, that you in your prayers
will commend me to God, that he will mitigate my heavy sins, under whose
burden I lie oppressed, and by his unspeakable mercy make me safe among
the elect. Nine abbeys of monks and one of nuns, which my ancestors
founded in Normandy, I have enriched and augmented, and in the time
of my government seventeen monasteries of monks, and six of holy nuns,
have been founded by myself and nobility ; whose charters I have freely
confirmed, and do by princely authority confirm against all emulations
and troubles. In them God is served ; and for his sake many holy people
relieved ; with such camps both England and Normandy is defended ;
and in these forts let all younglings learn to fight against the devil and the
vices of the flesh. These were the studies that I followed from my first

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 393

testament. By this lie bequeathed to his eldest son
Robert the dominion of Normandy and Maine ; to his
second, William, the crown of England, with a letter to
the archbishop, Lanfranc; and to Henry the sum of
5000/. in addition to the fortune of his mother, pre-
dicting at the same time that he would some day sur-
pass both his brothers in power and opulence. To the
abbey of St. Stephen, at Caen, he presented his crown

years, and these I leave unto my heirs to be preserved and kept. In this,
then, my children, follow me, that you may be honoured before God and
men. And chiefly, 0 you, my very bowels, I warn you to frequent and
follow the company and counsel of good and wise men, and govern your-
selves accordingly : so shall ye long and happily prosper. Do justice to
all, without partial affection ; for it is true wisdom indeed that can dis-
cern betwixt good and evil, right and wrong. Shun wickedness, relieve
the poor ; succour the weak, but suppress the proud, and bridle the-
troublesome. Frequent the church, honour the religion, and without
weariness be obedient to the law of God. The dukedom of Normandy,
before I fought against Harold in the vale of Sanlac, I granted unto my
son Robert, for that he is my first begotten, and hath already received
homage of all the barons almost of his country. That, however given,
cannot again be undone, but yet withal I know it will be a miserable
region which is subject to the rule of his government. For he is a foolish
proud knave, and is to be punished with cruel fortune. I constitute no
heir to the realm of England, but commend it to the everlasting Creator,
whose I am ; for I possess not that honour by any title of inheritance j
but by the instinct of God, the effusion of blood, and the perjury of Harold ;
whose life bereaved and his favourers vanquished, I made it subject to
my dominion. The natives of the realm I hated, the nobles I dishonoured,
the vulgar I cruelly vexed, and many unjustly I disherited. In the county
of York and sundry other places, an innumerable sort, with hunger and.
sword I slew. And thus that beautiful and noble nation I made desolate
with the deaths of many thousands, woe worth the grief ! These, then,
my sins being so great, I dare not give the offices of that land to any other
than to God, least after my death they yet be made worse by my occasion.
Yet William, my son, whose love and obedience from his youth I have
seen, I wish (if so be the will of God) may flourish on the throne of that
kingdom, with a long life and happy reign." — Speed, History of Great
Britain, pp. 432,

394 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

and sceptre, the precious chalice, the golden candle-
sticks, and other regalia used at his coronation.

It would thus appear that the close of the great Nor-
man's career was in no way commensurate with his
previous greatness. The devastating fire he had so
wantonly employed against his enemies crossed his path
in the hour of victory, and cut short his days. But,
according to monkish testimony, he died like a good
Christian ; or they, at least, put into his mouth a con-
fession which redounds so much to their praise; the
number of monasteries which he had founded being
apparently the strongest claim which he could allege to
a reversion of interest above. The decease of this great
warrior king took place on the 9th day of September,
1087, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, the twenty-first
year of his reign over England, and the fifty-fourth of
his ducal power in Normandy.7

Few princes have been more fortunate than this great
monarch, or were better entitled to grandeur and pros-
perity, from the abilities and vigour of mind which he
displayed in all his conduct. His spirit was bold and
enterprising, yet guided by prudence; his ambition,
which was exorbitant, and lay little under the restraints
of justice, still less under those of humanity, was con-
trolled by the dictates of sound policy. Born in an age

7 Nouvelle Hist, de Normandie ; Speed ; Chron. Sax. ; Henry ; Hume ;
Smollett ; Kennett ; Lingard. " Hearing the sound of the great bell in
the metropolitan church of St. Gervas near Rouen, William, raising his
exhausted frame from the supporting pillows, asked what it meant. One
of his attendants replying, ' that it then rang prime to our Lady,' the
dying monarch, lifting his eyes to heaven, and spreading abroad his hands,
exclaimed, ' I commend myself to that blessed Lady, Mary the mother
of God, that she by her holy intercession may reconcile me to her most
dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,' and with these words expired." — Or-
dericus Yitalis ; Malmsbury.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 395

when the minds of men were intractable and unac-
quainted with submission, he was yet enabled to direct
them to his purposes ; and partly from the ascendant of
his vehement character, partly from art and dissimula-
tion, to establish an unlimited authority.

Though not insensible of generosity, he was hardened
against compassion, and he seemed equally ostentatious
and ambitious of show and parade in his clemency and
in his severity. The maxims of his administration
were austere, but might have been useful had they been
solely employed to preserve order in an established
government ; they were ill calculated for softening the
rigours which, under the most gentle management, are
inseparable from conquest. His attempt against Eng-
land was the last great enterprise of the kind, which,
during the course of 700 years, has fully succeeded in
Europe; and the force of his genius broke through
those limits which, first the feudal institutions, then the
refined policy of princes, have fixed to the several states
of Christendom.

Though William rendered himself odious to his
English subjects, he transmitted his power to his pos-
terity, and the throne is still filled by his descendants ;
a proof that the foundations which he laid were firm
and solid, and that, amidst all his violence, while he
seemed only to gratify the present passion, he had still
extended his views towards futurity.8

It is interesting to consider the opinions of distin-
guished historians respecting the character of a ruler,
still more extraordinary as a man than as a monarch.
The tyranny of William, observes Mr. Hallam, displayed
less of passion or insolence, than of that indifference

8 Hume, Hist, of England, i. 8vo. ed. Hughes.

396 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

about human suffering which distinguishes a cold and
far-sighted statesman. Observing that the mild govern-
ment of Canute had only ended in the expulsion of the
Danish line, he resolved to rivet his fetters firmly till all
resistance should become impracticable.9 With this
view the bishops and abbots of English birth were in a
short time deposed ; ' none of the English race for a
hundred years afterwards were raised to any dignity in
the State or Church.2 From a like policy, the laws
were administered in no other tongue than the French.
The name of Englishman was a reproach/ and, in less
than twenty years from William' s accession, the whole
soil of England had been divided among foreigners.4
The English, dispossessed of their estates, resorted to
different countries; and many, uncler the name of
Varangians, became faithful supporters of the Byzantine
empire, and preserved till its dissolution their ancient
Saxon idiom.5 The depopulation of the great towns
was another consequence not less marked of William's
feudal government.6 In the very frame of his laws he
made a distinction between theNormans and the English,
to the advantage of the former,7 and acted in every-

9 W. of Malms. 104 ; Hallam, ii. 160. * Ibid.

2 Hoveden, 453. 3 Lyttleton ; Hallam, ii. 161.

4 Ingulphus ; Hallam.

5 The question of Norman or ante-Norman occupiers raged warmly
between Dugdale and Brady on one side, and Tyrrell, Petit and Atwood
on the other.

6 In the reign of Edward the Confessor there were in York 1607 in-
habited houses ; in the reign of William, 967 ; in the former there were
in Oxford, 721 ; in the latter, 243. Out of 172 houses in Dorchester, 100
were destroyed ; of 273 in Derby, 103 ; of 487 in Chester, 205. And
scarcely any other towns of minor rank failed to exhibit the same proof
of decayed prosperity in the decline of their population. — Hallam, ii. 1 60, 4.

7 Hoveden, p. 600.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 397

thing as absolute master over the natives, whose interest
and affections he totally disregarded. Contumely was
even added to oppression, and they were universally
reduced to such a state of poverty that the English
name became a term of reproach.8 Generations elapsed
before one family of Saxon pedigree was raised to any
considerable honours,, or could so much as attain the
rank of a baron of the realm.9

It cannot be doubted, observes an enlightened philo-
sophic writer, that William surpassed all his contem-
porary rulers in a capacity for command, in war cer-
tainly, and probably also in peace. Sagacity, circum-
spection, foresight, courage, both in forming plans and
facing dangers, insight into men's characters, ascen-
dency over men's minds : all these qualities he doubt-
less possessed in a very high degree. All that can be
said in extenuation of his perfidy and cruelty is that he
did not so far exceed the chiefs of that period in these
detestable qualities, as he unquestionably surpassed
them in ability and vigour. It may be added that,
if he had lived in a better age, when his competitors
as well as himself would have been subject to equal
restraints, he would have retained his superiority over
them by the force of his mental powers and endow-
ments. It is also true that contests with lawless and
barbarous enemies, to which a man is stimulated by
fierce and burning ambition, are the most severe tests
of human conduct. The root of the evil is the liability
to that intractable and irresistible frenzy.

The Saxon chronicler, who tells us that he had lived
in William's court, gives him the praise of being wise ;
which is just, if wisdom can exist without virtue ; of

8 H. Hunt. 370 ; Brompt. 980. 9 Ibid.

398 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

energy, stateliness, splendour,, mildness, and generosity
towards the clergy, who were his instruments of rule,
and of the severe execution of justice upon all robbers
except those of his own band. But " so stern was he
and hot, that no man durst gainsay his will. He had
earls in prison ; bishops he hurled from their bishoprics ;
he overran Scotland ; and he would in two years more
have won Ireland. In his time had men much distress.
He made many deer parks, and established laws Ly
which whoever slew a hart or a hind was deprived of his
sight. He forbade men to kill harts or boars, and lie
loved the tall deer as if he were their father. He
decreed that the hares should go free. Rich men
bemoaned it, and poor men shuddered at it. But he
was so stern that he recked not the hatred of them
all."1 The Saxon, even amidst the ruins of his country,
considered the sacrifice of the lives of the many to the
amusements of the few as a species of tyranny more
insolent and intolerable than any other.

Two legal revolutions of very unequal importance and
magnitude occurred, or were completed, in the reign of
the Conqueror — the separation of the ecclesiastical from
the civil judicature, and the introduction or consumma-
tion of the feudal system. Justice was chiefly adminis-
tered among the Anglo-Saxons in the county or rather
hundred courts, of which the bishop and alderman, or
earl, were joint judges, and where the thanes were

1 Yet William was not free from the terrors of superstition, as the follow-
ing curious anecdote will show. While laying waste parts of Yorkshire,
he approached Beverley, the seat of Sir John Beverley. One of his
horsemen, riding at full speed into the lands, his horse fell and broke its
neck, while the face of the man grew so convulsed that it was twisted
backwards. The king, esteeming this but a sorry omen, desisted from his
intended violence on that place. — Chron. Sax.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 399

bound to do suit and service, probably to countenance
the judgment and strengthen the authority of the court.
The most commendable part of William's policy was
his conduct to the Pope, towards whom he acted
with gratitude, but with independence. He enforced
the ecclesiastical laws against simony and the concu-
binage of the clergy. He restored, as we have seen, the
donation of Peter's pence; but he rejected with some
indignation the demand of homage made by Hildebrand
(Gregory VII.), then elated with the impunity and
acquiescence which seemed to attend his pretensions to
domineer over the sovereigns of Europe. He seems to
have introduced the practice of appeals to Rome in
ecclesiastical causes ; without which, indeed, the patri-
archal jurisdiction of the Roman see was useless. But
he separated ecclesiastical jurisdiction from civil by for-
bidding bishops to hold pleas in county courts, and
limited their power to causes of a spiritual nature in
their own tribunals.2

It is certain that the system of government and landed
property, commonly known throughout Europe as the
feudal system, subsisted in England from the reign of
the Conqueror. It is now as clearly established that
the system did not arise on the first conquest of the
Western Empire. The most reasonable supposition seems
to be that it was gradually prepared in the Anglo-Saxon,
times, and finished in England by the Norman invaders.
The confiscation of a great part of the country for real
fidelity and pretended treason, and the policy of placing
the administration and the property in the hands of
William's followers, gave him an opportunity of esta-

2 A.D. 1085, Spelm. Con. i. 368, &c. ; Rymer, i. 3 j Mackintosh, Hist,
of Eng. i. 113,14.

400 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

blisliing a feudal system, together with, the means of
supporting it, and motives for immediately introducing
it, which scarcely existed in any of the continental
nations among whom it had slowly grown into practice.
As authority was won and exercised by war, the mili-
tary principle of the feudal system was attended by civil
administration and territorial jurisdiction. The lord
who had the right to the military service of the people
of a district, was the only person who had the means of
exercising any authority in it. The vassal swore fidelity
to his lord, who therefore invested every successive
tenant with his land. Every lord had courts, at which
his tenants were obliged to serve him in distributing
justice to all his vassals. The king was the chief lord,
but his jurisdiction was limited to his immediate tenants
and to his own domains. Every new inheritor paid a
sum of money, under the name of a relief, to his lord on
the investiture. Every tenant paid a fine for leave to
alienate the fief. It was forfeited for breach of the
feudal contract ; and it fell to the lord when the
descendants of the first grantee were either extinct, or
had by their offences become incapable of inheriting.
It was a natural provision, though it grew to be an
intolerable grievance in England and Normandy, where
it chiefly prevailed, that the lord should be the guardian
of his minor tenants, and that he should have the dis-
posal of his wards, female as well as male, in marriage.3
The right of the most petty lord to lead his vassals
against their neighbours was not questioned. Private
wars raged constantly. All the military tenants were

3 William was extremely jealous of preserving this part of his preroga-
tive, as head lord, and had so great a number of wards, with a veto upon
their marriages, as to be productive to him of a considerable sum.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 401

directly or indirectly bound by an oath of fealty to the
Crown; but the obligation was frequently eluded, and
revolts were familiar. The king, though the lord para-
mount, was often by no means the most powerful lord ;
and William himself governed more men and a wider
territory than the Capetian prince who reigned at Paris.
A feudal kingdom was a confederacy of a numerous
body of lords, who lived in a state of war against each
other, and of rapine towards all mankind, in which the
king, according to his ability or vigour, was either a
cipher or a tyrant, and a great portion of the people
were reduced to personal slavery. Had the feudal
system never existed before, the circumstances of Wil-
liam's conquest would have been sufficient to produce
it. It was, however, more easy to transfer it from France
to a country where its foundations were already laid by
the Saxons.4

The portrait of William, as traced by history, when,
scarcely more than sixteen, was that of a prince destined
to rival the greatest of his times. His figure was tall
and majestic; his countenance of a manly beauty,
indicating the firmness and decision of his character.
He excelled in all martial exercises ; his intellect was
quick and penetrating ; his disposition prompting him
to great undertakings ; while his manners were frank
and affable. He was well imbued with a knowledge of
all the sciences in repute during the eleventh century,
and his progress in them was so rapid as to extort the
admiration of his masters.5

William's great qualities, indeed, contained the germs

4 Sir J. Mackintosh, Hist, of England, vol. i. 114, 16, passim ; Hallam ;
Smythe ; Brodie ; Alison, for general view.

5 Sir W. Temple ; Lyttleton ; Henry ; Lingard j Prevost.
YOL4 I. D D

402 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

of the noblest virtues ; but they were sullied with
faults of character which, fostered instead of eradicated
on their first appearance,, became the source of his
future unhappiness, and a misfortune to the people
whom he governed. These were an insatiable avarice,
ambition, and a keen sense of injury, impelling him to
passionate revenge — a disposition which circumstances
tended greatly to develop. Here the exhortations
of wisdom and moderation were employed in vain ; and
we have seen how far such a disposition influenced his
conduct, and extended its baneful power into the bosom
of his own family.6

The funeral obsequies of King William I. were
attended with some circumstances which exhibit the
vanity of human greatness — the sudden and painful
contrast between glory and nothingness — the splendour
of a throne and the silence of the grave. Robert was
not near him in his last illness,7 to crave his forgiveness
or receive his blessing ; William had set out for Eng-
land to secure the crown, and Henry to possess himself
of the property and castles which had been promised to
him. The body was left in the charge of the inferior
officers, who, emulating the example set by their mas-
ters, immediately plundered the house of everything it
contained ; seizing on the plate, money, jewels, even
articles of the least value ; stripping the corpse of the
mighty Conqueror, and leaving it, exposed and deserted,
upon the floor.8 Men, we are told,9 were possessed
with a marvellous fear that some dangerous adventures
would ensue. The dead body thus remained from prime

6 Sir W. Temple ; Lyttleton j Henry ; Lingard j Provost.

7 Ord. Vit. ; W. of Malms.

8 Ord. Vit. ; Speed ; W. of Malms. ; Brompton. 9 Hayward.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 403

until three of the clock, neither guarded nor regarded
by any man. In the mean time, the religious persons
went in procession to the church of St. Gervase, and
there commended his soul to God. Then William,
Archbishop of Roan, commanded that his body should
be carried to Caen, to be there buried in the church of
St. Stephen ; but he was forsaken of all his followers,
and there was not any found who would undertake
either the care or the charge. At the last, Herlwien, a
country knight, upon his own cost, caused the body
to be embalmed and adorned for funeral pomp ; then
conveyed it by coach to the mouth of the river Somme,
and so, partly by land and partly by sea, to Caen.

Then the abbot and monks came forth with the usual
ceremonies, and numbers of the clergy and the people
speedily joined them. While in the midst of the pro-
cession, a fire broke out which enveloped great part
of the town, and the royal corpse was again abandoned.
When it had subsided, a few monks collected by
degrees, and followed the body once more towards the
abbey church. At length, the bishops and abbots were
assembled to perform the last rites, but found they were
more easily begun than terminated ; for the Bishop of
Evreux, after a long discourse, concluded with a request
that, if any one present had received any injury at the
hands of the deceased monarch, he would have the
charity to forgive him. Upon this, one Anselm Fitz-
Arthur sprung up, and with a loud voice exclaimed :
" This ground was once the floor of my father's house,
which that man of whom you spoke, when Duke of
Normandy, seized by violence, to found thereon this
religious edifice. This he did not by ignorance or
oversight, by any necessity of state, but to satisfy his

D D 2

404 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

covetous desires. I therefore challenge this ground as
my right ; and do here charge you, as you will answer it
before the fearful face of Almighty God, that the body
of the spoiler be not covered with the earth of my
inheritance."

Witness of this being produced, the nobles and
bishops agreed to give the challenger three pounds for
the place of burial, undertaking that he should receive
compensation for the rest of his loss, which was after-
wards paid by prince Henry, to the amount of one
hundred pounds.

When the body was about to be lowered into the
grave, an accident occurred, owing to which it is said to
have burst, and so overpowering rose the effluvia from
it that not all the incense and perfumes made use of
in the embalming, and in the church, were powerful
enough to purify the air; and all parties made the
utmost haste they could to complete their work, " the
people departing in a sad silence, discoursing diversely
afterwards of all these extraordinary accidents."

It might be expected that a sepulchre obtained with
so much difficulty would have been allowed to remain
undisturbed. But it seemed as if he who had never
known what it was to rest during his life was to be
denied repose even in his grave. In 1542, we are
told, l the bishop of Bayeux, having an extraordi-
nary curiosity to behold the remains of so great a con-
queror, obtained permission from the authorities to
examine his tomb.2 After removing the stone cover
which protected the grave, the coffin was opened, and
the remains of the once majestic Conqueror, almost as
entire as when deposited nearly 500 years before, were

1 Darel. Norman Antiquities ; Orel. Vit. - Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 405

exposed to public view. It was then ascertained that his
height exceeded that of ordinary men, and that the
bones were still more remarkable for their gigantic size/
which served to account for his unequalled strength.

The good bishop,, astonished to see the body of the
Conqueror in such a state of preservation, ordered a
drawing to be made of it by one of the most distin-
guished artists in Caen, which, when completed, was
exhibited publicly on the abbey walls, opposite to
the handsome monument raised by William Rufus to
his father's memory. There was also found carefully
laid up in the tomb a plate of gilded copper, which bore
an inscription supposed to have been written by Thomas,
Archbishop of York, which has been rendered into the
following English verse : —

" He who the sturdy Normans ruled, and over England reigned,
And stoutly won and strongly kept what he had so obtained,
And did the swords of those of Maine by force bring under awe,
And made them under his command live subject to his law ;
This great King William lieth here intombed in little grave,
So great a lord, so small a house sufficeth him to have :
When Phoebus in the Virgin's lap his circled course applied
And twenty-three degrees had passed, e'en at that time he died."

The tomb having been carefully closed, was left in the
same state as when it had been opened. But it did not
long continue undisturbed. In the year 1562, Chatillon
occupied the city of Caen, and a party of soldiers
breaking into the abbey threw down the monument,
completely despoiling it of its costly ornaments, and
proceeded to rifle the tomb itself. Not meeting with
the treasures they expected, they took the body of the
Conqueror and scattered his bones, in their rage, on all

3 Ducarel, Norman Antiquities ; Ord. Vit. ; Hayward ; Prevost.

406 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

sides. A number of English soldiers, happening to be
in the town, made a point of collecting them ; and it is
said that they were afterwards brought into England.4
Another account is, that one of the thigh-bones came
into the possession of the viscount Falaise, who restored
it to the royal grave. Historical testimony is borne by
M. de Bras that the said bone exceeded the usual length
allotted to thigh-bones by nearly four inches, and was
the largest he had ever seen.5 We are told, by the
same authority, that the painting made by command
of the bishop fell to the share of the gaoler of Caen,
who cut it into two parts, one of which he turned to the
use of a table, the other into a cupboard door ; a fact
from which we may infer that it was drawn upon panel.
Some of these relics of the great politician, who always
expressed so remarkable a veneration for relics, and
turned them to so good an account, were recovered by
M. le Bras, who greatly prized them during the re-
mainder of his life.6

We need not here remark upon the incompatibility
of the two stories ; for if, in 1542, the body was found
in such high preservation, it would scarcely have been
reduced to a mere skeleton in 1562, though this is a
point we would willingly refer to the resurrectionary
experience of the great soldiers and levellers of past
ages. Nor can we quite credit, as is asserted, that the
body was full eight feet in length, or much exceeding
that of a somewhat tall and strong-built man. A third
version of these repeated spoliations of the Conqueror's
remains is, that, in 1642, the monks of St. Stephen col-
lected the bones of their royal founder, and raised over

4 Hayward, Life of King William I.

5 Ducarel ; Norman Antiquities. 6 Ibid.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEllOii. 407

their last resting-place a strong altar-shaped tomb, as if
to deter further sacrilege,, in the same chancel where stood
the former monument.7 The nuns of the Holy Trinity
performed a similar pious office for the tomb of their
royal patroness, by repairing the costly monument
erected to her memory by William himself, and replac-
ing the scattered fragments of her statue, which they
set up in the centre of the choir, upon a handsome
marble tomb, guarded by a fence of iron spikes, and en-
veloped with ancient tapestry.8

There was something remarkably striking and ma-
jestic in the air and expression of William the Conqueror.
Loftiness of stature, stern yet handsome regular fea-
tures, and surpassing strength, combined with energy
and easy graceful action, gave to his whole appearance
and address an ascendency which impressed the mind of
the beholder. Yet, with that versatility of character
which distinguishes most great men, he could assume,

7 In the middle of the choir, just before the high altar, where the body
of the Conqueror was first deposited. The stately monument first erected
to him by his son, William Rums, was the work of Odo, a goldsmith of
Caen. The figure of the Conqueror was sculptured as large as life, arrayed
in his robes of state, upon its summit, and at the foot of it was inscribed
the epitaph.

8 Ducarel, Norman Antiquities ; Nouvelle Hist, de Nor. In the Anglo-
Norman Antiquities, by the learned and very amusing Doctor (Ducarel),
so richly illustrated, may be found a great variety of curious particulars
relating to the Norman kings ; the abbeys, castles, and palaces founded by
them ; then? tombs and monuments ; with the long Latin epitaphs, then so
fashionable and full of eulogy — the vain oblation to deceased majesty.
There are several to William the Conqueror, to which it will be more
convenient to refer the curious reader than to try the patience of all by
giving them in their native garb. The literary illustrations, likewise, of
this ingenious traveller and learned ornament of Doctors' Commons, will
repay the attention of the tourist, who is fond of exploring the church and
palace architecture of Normandy.

408 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

in his happier moments, a fascination of manner, the
soul-lit brilliant eye, the irresistible smile and charm of
voice, the proud distinction of lofty intellect, which dis-
armed the soldier and the monarch of all his terrors.
No wonder that, thus gifted, he dictated the fashion to
the court and the law to the country. His spacious
forehead was somewhat bald; his beard was closely
shaved, a fashion which he first introduced, and one gra-
dually followed by all the Normans.

In the antiquarian work of Ducarel are several por-
traits of the Conqueror, with the coats of arms, medals,
monuments, charters, and seals. One of the original
portraits is stated9 to have been in existence up to the
year 1789, in a room near the old gateway of the
monastery at Caen, and in a good state of preservation.
A very inferior copy of this was taken, while the original,
it is believed, was allowed to perish upon the damp and
exposed wall.

On one side of the portrait were displayed the lilies
of France in their reduced number of three, and on the
other the leopards of Normandy.

The date of this portrait and the occasion of it are
well known.1 An engraving of it is given in Ducarel,2
but its authenticity, to say nothing of its being a con-
temporary and original portrait of William, would
appear to be very questionable. It is described as a
mere daub on the wall of the porter's lodge, with much
the same claim to authenticity as the old family por-
traits at Lumley Castle, or even the Ely painting. In
its bluff figure it betrays rather the garb and air of one

9 Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lix. 11.
1 Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lix. 782.
5 Norman Antiquities.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 409

of our modern Eighth Harrys than a Norman warrior of
the eleventh century.5

"VVe have abstained from giving any account of the
famous Bayeux tapestry, an exact description of which
has been presented to the public by Miss Strickland, in
her admirably written Lives of the English Queens. We
may refer our readers, however, to the amusing work
of Dr. Ducarel, for that and other curious matters, and
to the works of Montfaucon.

The use of broad or great seals, and affixing impres-
sions of them in wax by pendent labels, to charters and
other public instruments, is known to have been prac-
tised by the Normans very early; and it is probable
that from them it passed into England.

The seal of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent,
is not only extremely rare, but very singular as regards
the figures represented on it. On one side he appears as
an earl, mounted on his war-horse, at full speed, clad
in armour, and holding a sword in his right hand ; on
the reverse in the character of a bishop, dressed in his
pontifical robes, and pronouncing the benediction.

The Conqueror was careful not to encroach upon Odo's
prelatical character, but he arrested him as Earl of
Kent, seized on all his treasures, and threw him into a
dungeon, showing the danger of a great prelate inter-
meddling in the temporal affairs of the kingdom.

In one of the numbers of the " Gentleman's Maga-
zine/' already alluded to, may be found a curious
antiquarian controversy respecting the fate of the spurs
and spoon belonging to the Conqueror.6 It appears

5 Memoires de la Monarchic Francaise.
0 Gentleman's Magazine, vol. Ix. 1780.

410 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

that, though long handed down as an heir-loom, they
suddenly and strangely disappeared, and the question
was, what became of them ? One of the correspondents
of " The Gentleman " ingeniously suggests " that they
might have been pawned " by one of his successors,
we are to presume, in some court panic or military
adventure, to raise "the ways and means." With
regard to the spurs, he might with more show of
chivalry have suggested that the Conqueror had lent
them to the champion of his old protege, Edgar Athel-
ing, on occasion of that prince challenging his accuser
to open combat,7 who had taxed him with conspiring
against the Conqueror's crown,

7 William compelled him to accept it, and make good his charge, if he
was able, by the special ordeal of battle. The king presided as a witness
of the scene ; the Saxon slew the maligner of the orphan family, and
William, deciding according to custom, that Heaven had declared for the
innocent, ever after treated Edgar and the princes and princesses of
Scotland with due consideration and kindness.

APPENDIX.

411

APPENDIX.

" THE names of such Nobles and Gentlemen of marque who
came in at this time with the Conqueror." — HolinsTied's
Chronicle.

Blunt

Beaupere

Beville

Bardvedor

Brette

Barret

Bonrett

Bainard

Barnivale

Bonett

Barry

Bryan

Bodin

Bertevile

Bertin

Bernevile

Bellewe

Bevery

Bushell

Boranvile

Browe

Belevers

Buffard

Bouveyer

Botevile

Bellire

Bastard

Brasard

Beelhelme

Braine

Breut

Braunch

Belesuz

Blundell

Burdett

Bagott:

Beauvise

Belemis

Aumarle

Bures

Aincourt

Bonnilaine

Audeley

Bois

Angilliam

Botelere

Argentonne

Bourcher

Arundell

Brabaion

Avenant

Berners

Abell

Braibuf

Auverne

Brande

Aunwers

Bronce

Angers

Burgh

Angenoune

Bushey

Archere

Banet

Anvay

Breton

Aspervile

Bluet

Albevile ,:

Blondell

Andevile

Baious

Amoverdvile

Browne

Arcy

Beke

Akeny

Bickard

Albeny

Banastre

Aybevare

Baloun

Amay

Beauchampe

Asperrnound

Bray

Amerenges

Bandy

Bracy

Bertram

Boundes

Buttecourt

Bascoun

Brehus

Broilem

Byseg

Brolevy

Bardolfe

Burnell

Basset

Bellet

Bigot
Bohun

Baudewin
Beaumont

Bailif

Burdon

Bondevile

Bertevilay '.

Brabason

Barre

Baskervile

Bussvile

412

APPENDIX,

Beisin

Curly

Engaine

Bernou

Cuily

Estriels

Boels

Clinels

Esturney

Belefroun

Clifford

Brutz

Courteney

Ferrerers

Barehampe

Denaville

Folvile
Fitzwater

Camois

Dercy

T^* rf-

Fitzmarmaduke

Camvile
Chawent
Chauncy
Conderay

-Uive

Dispencere
Daubeny
Daniell

Flevez
Filbert
Fitz- Roger
Favecourt

Colvile

i-jevise

Ferrers

Chamberlain

JJruell

Fitz Philip

Champernoun
Comin
Columber

Davers
Dodingsels

Filiot
Furniveus
Furnivans

Cribett
Creuquere
Corbine
Corbet*

Delaber
Delapole
Delalinde

Fitz Otes
Fitz-William
Fitz Roand
Fitz Pain

Chaundos
Chaworth
Cleremaus
Clarell

Delaware
Delavache
Dakeney

Fitz Auger
Fitz Aleyn
Fitz Rauff
Fitz Browne

Chopis
Chaunduit
Chautelow

Dauntre
Desny
Dabernoune

Foke
Frevile
Front de Boef

Chamberay
Cressy
Curtenay
Conestable
Cholmeley
Champney
Chawnos

Damry
Daveros
Davonge
Duilby
Delavere
Durange
Delahoid

Facunberge
Fort
Frisell
Fitz Simon
Fitz Fouk
Filioll
Fitz Thomas

Comivile

ueiee

Fitz Morice

Champaine
Carevile
Carbonelle

Delaund
Delaward
Delaplanch
.IJamnot

Fitz Hugh
Fitz Henrie
Fitz Warren

Charles
Chereberge
Chawnes

Danway
Dehense

Fitz Rainold
Flamvile
Formay

Chaumont

iJeviie

Fitz Eustach

Caperoun

"n ' 'ii

Fitz Laurence

Cheine

oi\i e

Fornibaud

Curson
Coville

JJurant
Drury

Frisound
Finere

€haiters
Cheines
Cateray
Cherecourt

Dunsterville
Dunchampe
Dambelton

Fitz Robert
Furnivale
Fitz Geffrey
Fitz Herbert

Cammile

Estrange

Fitz Perez

Clerenay

Estutevile

Fichet

APPENDIX.

413

Fitz Rewcs
Fitz Fitz
Fitz John
Fleschampe

Gurnay

Gressy

Graunsou

Gracy

Georges

Gower

Gaugy

Goband

Gray

Gaunson

Golofre

Gobion

Grensy

Graunt

Greile

Grevet

Gurry

Gurley

Gramnori

Gemoun

Grendon

Gurdon

Gines

Grivell

Grenevile

Glatevile

Gurney

Giffard

Goverges

Gamages

Hauntenay

Haunsard

Hastings

Hanlay

Haurell

Husee

Hercy

Herioun

Herne

Harcourt

Henoure

Hovell

Hamelin

Harewell

Hardell

Hakett

Hamound

Harcord

Jar den

Malebraunch

Jay

Malemaine

Jeniels

Mortimer

Jerconvise

Mortimaine

Janvile

Muse

Jaspervile

Marteine

Kaunt

Mountbother
Mountsoler

Karre
Karrowe

Malevile
Malet

Keine
Kimaronne

Mounteney
Monfichet

Kiriell
Kancey

Maleherbe
Mare

Kenelre

Musegros

Loveny
Lacy

Musarde
Moine

Linneby
Latomer

Montravers
Merke

Loveday
Lovell

Murres
Mortivale

Lemare

Monchenesy

Levetot

Mallory

Lucy
Luny
Logevile
Longespes
Loverace

Marny
Mountagu
Mountford
Maule
Monhermon

Longchampe
Lascales

Musett
Menevile

Lovan

Mantenevan;

Leded

Manfe

Luse

Menpincoy

Lotorell

Maine

Loruge
Longuevale
Lov

Mainard
Morell
Mainell

Lorancourt

Maleluse

Loions

Memorous

Limers

Morreis

Longepay
Laumale

Morleian
Malevere

Lane

Mandut

Lovetot

Mount Marten

Mantelet

Mohant

Miners

Mowne

Mauclerke

Maundevile

Mounchenell

Marmilon

Movet

Moribray

Meintenore

Morvile

Meletak

Miriell

Manvile

Manlay

Mangisere

414

APPENDIX,

Maumasin

Pomeray

Souch

Mountlovel

Pounce

Shevile

Mawrewarde

Pavely

Senchens

Monhaut

Paifrere

Senclerc

Meller

Plukenet

Sent Quentin

Mountgomerie

Phuars

Sent Omere

Maularde

Punchardoun

Sent Amond

Menere

Pinchard

Sent Legere

Martinast

Placy

Somervile

Mare

Pugoy

Siward

Mainwaring

Patefinc

Sansovere

Matelay

Place

Sanford

Malemis

Pampilioun

Sanctes

Maleheire

Percelay

Savay

Moren

Perere

Saulay

Melun

Pekeny

Sules

Marceans

Poterell

Sorell

Maiell

Peukeny

Somerey

Morton

Peccell

Sent John

Noers

Pinell
Putrill

Sent George
Sent Les

Nevile

Petivoll

SGSSG

Newmarch

Preaus

Salvin

Norbet

Pantolf

Say

Norice
Newborough

Peito
Penecord

Solers
Sent Albin

Neiremet
Neile

Prendirlegast
Percivale

St. Martin
Sourdemale

Normavile
Neofmarcli
Nermitz

Quinci
Quintiny

Seguin
Sent Barbe
Sent Vile

Nembrutz

Ros

Souremount

Otevell

Ridell

Soreglise

Olibef

Rivers

Sandvile

Olifant

Rivell

Sauncey

Osenel

Rons

Sirewast

Oisell

Rushell

Sent Cheveroll

Olifard

Raband

Sent More

OrinaU

Roud

Sent Scudemore

Orioll

Rie

Rokell

Toget

Pigott

Risers

Tercy

Pery

Randvile

Tuchet

Perepount

Roselin

Tracy

Pershale

Rastoke

Trousbut

Power

Rinvill

Trainell

Painell

Rougere

Taket

Peche

Rait

Trussell

Pavey

Ripere

Trison

Pevrell

Rigny

Talbout

Perot

Richmound

Touny

Picard

Rochford

Traies

Pinkenie

Raimond

Tollemach

APPENDIX.

415

Toulous

Tanny

Touke

Tibtote

Turbevile

Turvile

Tomy

Tayerner

Trenchevile

Trenchelion

Tankervile

Tirell

Trivet

Tolet

Travers

Tardevile

Turburvile

Tinevile

Torell

Tortechappel

Trasbote

Treverel

Tenwis

Totelles

Vere

Vernoun

Vescy

Verdoune

Valence

Verdeire

Vavasour

Vendore

Verlay

Valenger

Venables

Venoure

Vilan

Verland

Valers

Veirny

Vavurvile

Veniels

Verrere

Uschere

VeiFay

Vanay

Vian

Vernoys

Urnall

Unket

Urnafull

Vasderoll

Vaberon

Valingford

Venicorde

Valive

Viville

Vancorde

Valenges

Wardebois

Ward

Wafre

Wake

Wareine

Wate

Watelin

Watevile

Wely

Werdonell

Wespaile

Wivell *

* Other lists are extant in Grafton, Stowe, and, where you would not
expect to find such a thing, in Fox's " Acts and Monuments," vulgarly
called the " Book of Martyrs." But this is the most copious. Thcr'e
was also another table, setting forth the chief of William's captains by
the title of their estates which they held in Normandy, such as Robert
Erie of Mortaigne, Le Seigneur d'Episnay, Le Seigneur de Longuc-
ville, and a few only by any surname — Vestig. Anglicana.

LONDON :
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITKl-'KI AKS.

353077

Roscoe, Thomas

The life of William the
Conqueror

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